Long-term effects of prenatal sound experience on songbird behavior and their relation to song learning

• DOI: 10.1007/s00265-020-02939-5
• Publication Date: 2021-01-07T01:56:38Z
• Authors: Andrew C. Katsis; Katherine L. Buch...; Sonia Kleindorfer; Mylene M. Mariette
• Keywords: Songbird; Animal ecology

Across multiple taxa, prenatal exposure to rhythmic sound can promote neural development and alter postnatal behavior. In recent studies using zebra finches, stimulating embryos with parental “heat calls” affected their begging behavior as nestlings and song learning as adults. This song learning effect is potentially mediated by broader changes to offspring behavior that affect how they interact with potential song tutors; however, the long-term behavioral effects of prenatal sound are still poorly understood. In this study, therefore, we used captive wild-derived zebra finches to experimentally test (1) whether prenatal sound experience affected long-term behavioral traits and (2) whether these traits were correlated with song learning outcomes. Offspring that had experienced heat calls (treatment) or contact calls (control) in the egg were raised after hatching in a colony environment. We then used four assays to quantify different aspects of their adult behavior, including food neophobia, detour reaching, and exploration in a novel environment. Treatment offspring were less food neophobic (quicker to eat a novel food item), adding to increasing evidence that prenatal sound can affect long-term behavior. However, levels of food neophobia did not, in turn, predict song learning. Differences in offspring song learning may instead be explained by exploration behavior, as fast-exploring males produced more syllables from non-paternal tutors. While our findings do not support the hypothesis that behavior mediates the effects of prenatal sound on song learning, they nevertheless bring us closer to understanding the behavioral mechanisms through which prenatal sound might affect postnatal outcomes.