Early auditory and adult mating experiences interact with singer identity to shape neural responses to song in female zebra finches

Female zebra finches were reared either with their father (normally-reared) or without their father and in the absence of song (song-naive). As adults, these females were paired for 2-weeks with a male in a sound attenuating chamber. Within the same chamber, a second male-female pair was also housed. Females then heard either their mate's song, the song of the neighboring male (familiar), or the song of an unfamiliar male. The same song was used in all conditions, only the female's relationship to the song varied. We counted the number of neurons expressing phosphorylated S6 (pS6), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), or both in auditory regions, mid and hindbrain catecholaminergic regions, and regions in the social behavior network.