Social experiences shape song preference learning independent of developmental exposure to song

Communication governs the formation and maintenance of social
relationships. The interpretation of communication signals depends not
only on the signal’s content, but also on a receiver’s individual
experience. Experiences throughout life may interact to affect behavioral
plasticity, such that a lack of developmental sensory exposure could
constrain adult learning, while salient adult social experiences could
remedy developmental deficits. We investigated how experiences impact the
formation and direction of female auditory preferences in the zebra finch.
Zebra finches form long-lasting pair bonds and females learn preferences
for their mate’s vocalizations. We found that after two weeks of
cohabitation with a male, females formed pair bonds and learned to prefer
their partner’s song regardless of whether they were reared with
(“normally-reared”) or without (“song-naïve”) developmental exposure to
song. In contrast, females that heard but did not physically interact with
a male did not prefer his song. In addition, previous work has found that
song-naive females do not show species-typical preferences for courtship
song. We found that cohabitation with a male ameliorated this difference
in preference. Thus, courtship and pair bonding, but not acoustic-only
interactions, strongly influence preference learning regardless of rearing
experience, and may dynamically drive auditory plasticity for recognition
and preference.