Stress hormones, social associations and song learning in zebra finches.

ABSTRACT: The use of information provided by others is a common short-cut adopted to inform decision-making. However, instead of indiscriminately copying others, animals are often selective in what, when and whom they copy. How do they decide which 'social learning strategy' to use? Previous research indicates that stress hormone exposure in early life may be important: while juvenile zebra finches copied their parents' behaviour when solving novel foraging tasks, those exposed to elevated levels of corticosterone (CORT) during development copied only unrelated adults. Here, we tested whether this switch in social learning strategy generalizes to vocal learning. In zebra finches, juvenile males often copy their father's song; would CORT-treated juveniles in free-flying aviaries switch to copying son

SUBMITTER: Boogert NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6107560 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature