Data from: Courtship song preferences in female zebra finches are shaped by developmental auditory experience

The performance of courtship signals provides information about the behavioural state and quality of the signaller, and females can use such information for social decision-making (e.g., mate choice). However, relatively little is known about the degree to which the perception of and preference for differences in motor performance are shaped by developmental experiences. Further, the neural substrates that development could act upon to influence the processing of performance features remains largely unknown. In songbirds, females use song to identify males and select mates. Moreover, female songbirds are often sensitive to variation in male song performance. Consequently, we investigated how developmental exposure to adult male song affected behavioural and neural responses to song in a small, gregarious songbird, the zebra finch. Zebra finch males modulate their song performance when courting females, and previous work has shown that females prefer the high-performance, female-directed courtship song. However, unlike females allowed to hear and interact with an adult male during development, females reared without developmental song exposure did not demonstrate behavioural preferences for high-performance courtship songs. Additionally, auditory responses to courtship and non-courtship song were altered in adult females raised without developmental song exposure. These data highlight the critical role of developmental auditory experience in shaping the perception and processing of song performance.求偶信号的表现水平可传递信号发出者的行为状态与个体质量信息，雌性个体可借助此类信息开展社交决策（例如配偶选择）。然而，目前学界对运动表现差异的感知与偏好受发育经历调控的程度仍知之甚少。此外，发育过程可作用于哪些神经底物以影响表现特征的加工过程，目前仍大体未被探明。在鸣禽类群中，雌性个体依靠鸣唱识别雄性个体并完成配偶选择。进一步而言，雌性鸣禽通常对雄性鸣唱表现的差异具有敏感性。据此，本研究以小型群居鸣禽斑胸草雀（zebra finch）为研究对象，探究发育阶段接触成年雄性鸣唱，如何影响其对鸣唱刺激的行为与神经反应。斑胸草雀雄性在向雌性求偶时会调整其鸣唱表现水平，既往研究已证实雌性更偏好体现高表现水平的、针对雌性的求偶鸣唱。但与发育阶段可聆听成年雄性鸣唱并与之互动的雌性个体不同，未在发育阶段接触鸣唱的雌性个体，并未表现出对高表现水平求偶鸣唱的行为偏好。此外，未在发育阶段接触鸣唱的成年雌性个体，其对求偶鸣唱与非求偶鸣唱的听觉反应也发生了显著改变。本研究结果凸显了发育阶段听觉经验在塑造鸣唱表现的感知与加工过程中的关键作用。