title: Sex differences in behavioural and neural responsiveness to mate calls in a parrot.
abstract: Vocalisation in songbirds and parrots has become a prominent model system for speech and language in humans. We investigated possible sex differences in behavioural and neural responsiveness to mate calls in the budgerigar, a vocally-learning parrot. Males and females were paired for 5 weeks and then separated, after which we measured vocal responsiveness to playback calls (a call of their mate versus a call of an unfamiliar conspecific). Both sexes learned to recognise mate calls during the pairing period. In males, but not females, mate calls evoked significantly fewer vocal responses than unfamiliar calls at one month after separation. Furthermore, in females, there was significantly greater molecular neuronal activation in response to mate calls compared to silence in the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM), a higher-order auditory region, in both brain hemispheres. In males, we found right-sided dominance of molecular neuronal activation in response to mate calls in the CMM. This is the first evidence suggesting sex differences in functional asymmetry of brain regions related to recognition of learned vocalisation in birds. Thus, sex differences related to recognition of learned vocalisations may be found at the behavioural and neural levels in avian vocal learners as it is in humans.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.|Graduate School of Human Arts Sciences, University of Human Arts and Sciences, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eda-Fujiwara
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryohei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hata
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Marika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Aiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Matthijs A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zandbergen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takenori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Johan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Bolhuis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030161:Avian Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D010311:Parrots / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
chemical_list: D030161:Avian Proteins