Effects of early-life conditions on innate immune function in adult zebra finches.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Driessen MMG
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8214827 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Stress during early life can cause disease and cognitive impairment in humans and non-humans alike. However, stress and other environmental factors can also program developmental pathways. We investigate whether differential exposure to developmental stress can drive divergent social learning strategies between siblings. In many species, juveniles acquire essential foraging skills by copying others: they can copy peers (horizontal social learning), learn from their parents (vertical social learning), or learn from other adults (oblique social learning). However, whether juveniles' learning strategies are condition dependent largely remains a mystery. We found that juvenile zebra finches living in flocks socially learned novel foraging skills exclusively from adults. By experimentally manipulating developmental stress, we further show that social learning targets are phenotypically plastic. While control juveniles learned foraging skills from their parents, their siblings, exposed as nestlings to experimentally elevated stress hormone levels, learned exclusively from unrelated adults. Thus, early-life conditions triggered individuals to switch strategies from vertical to oblique social learning. This switch could arise from stress-induced differences in developmental rate, cognitive and physical state, or the use of stress as an environmental cue. Acquisition of alternative social learning strategies may impact juveniles' fit to their environment and ultimately change their developmental trajectories.
| S-EPMC4540255 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Early-life experience can fundamentally shape individual life-history trajectories. Previous research has suggested that exposure to stress during development causes differences in social behaviour later in life. In captivity, juvenile zebra finches exposed to elevated corticosterone levels were less socially choosy and more central in their social networks when compared to untreated siblings. These differences extended to other aspects of social life, with 'stress-exposed' juveniles switching social learning strategies and juvenile males less faithfully learning their father's song. However, while this body of research suggests that the impacts of early-life stress could be profound, it remains unknown whether such effects are strong enough to be expressed under natural conditions. Here, we collected data on social associations of zebra finches in the Australian desert after experimentally manipulating brood sizes. Juveniles from enlarged broods experienced heightened sibling competition, and we predicted that they would express similar patterns of social associations to stress-treated birds in the captive study by having more, but less differentiated, relationships. We show striking support for the suggested consequences of developmental stress on social network positions, with our data from the wild replicating the same results in 9 out of 10 predictions previously tested in captivity. Chicks raised in enlarged broods foraged with greater numbers of conspecifics but were less 'choosy' and more central in the social network. Our results confirm that the natural range of variation in early-life experience can be sufficient to predict individuals' social trajectories and support theory highlighting the potential importance of developmental conditions on behaviour.
| S-EPMC6408881 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Adult zebra finches (T. guttata) form socially monogamous pair bonds characterized by proximity, vocal communication, and contact behaviors. In this experiment, we tested whether manipulations of the nonapeptide hormone arginine vasotocin (AVT, avian homolog of vasopressin) and the V1a receptor (V1aR) early in life altered species-typical pairing behavior in adult zebra finches of both sexes. Although there was no effect of treatment on the tendency to pair in either sex, males in different treatments exhibited profoundly different profiles of pair maintenance behavior. Following a brief separation, AVT-treated males were highly affiliative with their female partner but sang very little compared to Controls. In contrast, males treated with a V1aR antagonist sang significantly less than Controls, but did not differ in affiliation. These effects on behavior in males were also reflected in changes in the expression of V1aR and immediate early gene activity in three brain regions known to be involved in pairing behavior in birds: the medial amygdala, medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and the lateral septum. AVT males had higher V1aR expression in the medial amygdala than both Control and antagonist-treated males and immediate early gene activity of V1aR neurons in the medial amygdala was positively correlated with affiliation. Antagonist treated males showed decreased activity in the medial amygdala. In addition, there was a negative correlation between the activity of V1aR cells in the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and singing. Treatment also affected the expression of V1aR and activity in the lateral septum, but this was not correlated with any behaviors measured. These results provide evidence that AVT and V1aR play developmental roles in specific pair maintenance behaviors and the neural substrate underlying these behaviors in a bird.
| S-EPMC4810809 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe relevance of the host microbiota to host ecology and evolution is well acknowledged. However, the effect of the microbial environment on host immune function and host microbiota dynamics is understudied in terrestrial vertebrates. Using a novel experimental approach centered on the manipulation of the microbial environment of zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata, we carried out a study to investigate effects of the host's microbial environment on: 1) constitutive immune function, 2) the resilience of the host cloacal microbiota; and 3) the degree to which immune function and host microbiota covary in microbial environments that differ in diversity.ResultsWe explored immune indices (hemagglutination, hemolysis, IgY levels and haptoglobin concentration) and host-associated microbiota (diversity and composition) in birds exposed to two experimental microbial environments differing in microbial diversity. According to our expectations, exposure to experimental microbial environments led to differences related to specific antibodies: IgY levels were elevated in the high diversity treatment, whereas we found no effects for the other immune indices. Furthermore, according to predictions, we found significantly increased richness of dominant OTUs for cloacal microbiota of birds of the high diversity compared with the low diversity group. In addition, cloacal microbiota of individual females approached their baseline state sooner in the low diversity environment than females in the high diversity environment. This result supported a direct phenotypically plastic response of host microbiota, and suggests that its resilience depends on environmental microbial diversity. Finally, immune indices and cloacal microbiota composition tend to covary within treatment groups, while at the same time, individuals exhibited consistent differences of immune indices and microbiota characteristics.ConclusionWe show that microbes in the surroundings of terrestrial vertebrates can influence immune function and host-associated microbiota dynamics over relatively short time scales. We suggest that covariation between immune indices and cloacal microbiota, in addition to large and consistent differences among individuals, provides potential for evolutionary adaptation. Ultimately, our study highlights that linking environmental and host microbiotas may help unravelling immunological variation within and potentially among species, and together these efforts will advance the integration of microbial ecology and ecological immunology.
| S-EPMC7807698 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Brain activity during sleep is fairly ubiquitous and the best studied possible function is a role in memory consolidation, including motor memory. One suggested mechanism of how neural activity effects these benefits is through reactivation of neurons in patterns resembling those of the preceding experience. The specific patterns of motor activation replayed during sleep are largely unknown for any system. Brain areas devoted to song production in the songbird brain exhibit spontaneous song-like activity during sleep, but single cell neural recordings did not permit detection of the specific song patterns. We have now discovered that this sleep activation can be detected in the muscles of the vocal organ, thus providing a unique window into song-related brain activity at night. We show that male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) frequently exhibit spontaneous song-like activity during the night, but that the fictive song patterns are highly variable and uncoordinated compared to the highly stereotyped day-time song production. This substantial variability is not consistent with the idea that night-time activity replays day-time experiences for consolidation. Although the function of this frequent activation is unknown, it may represent a mechanism for exploring motor space or serve to generate internal error signals that help maintain the high stereotypy of day-time song. In any case, the described activity supports the emerging insight that brain activity during sleep may serve a variety of functions.
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Project description:Vocal control and learning are critically dependent on auditory feedback in songbirds and humans. Continuous delayed auditory feedback (cDAF) robustly disrupts speech fluency in normal humans and has ameliorative effects in some stutterers; however, evaluations of the effects of cDAF on songbirds are rare. We exposed singing young (141-151 days old) adult zebra finch males to high-amplitude cDAF. cDAF exposure was achieved by the recording of bone-conducted sounds using a piezoelectric accelerometer, which resulted in high-quality song recordings that were relatively uncontaminated by airborne sounds. Under this condition of cDAF, birds rapidly (2-6 days) changed their song syllable timing. The one bird for which we were able to maintain the accelerometer recordings over a long period of time recovered slowly over more than a month after cDAF was discontinued. These results demonstrate that cDAF can cause substantial changes in the motor program for syllable timing generation over short intervals of time in adult zebra finches.
| S-EPMC4350079 | biostudies-other
Project description:Speech impairment is one of the most intriguing and least understood effects of alcohol on cognitive function, largely due to the lack of data on alcohol effects on vocalizations in the context of an appropriate experimental model organism. Zebra finches, a representative songbird and a premier model for understanding the neurobiology of vocal production and learning, learn song in a manner analogous to how humans learn speech. Here we show that when allowed access, finches readily drink alcohol, increase their blood ethanol concentrations (BEC) significantly, and sing a song with altered acoustic structure. The most pronounced effects were decreased amplitude and increased entropy, the latter likely reflecting a disruption in the birds' ability to maintain the spectral structure of song under alcohol. Furthermore, specific syllables, which have distinct acoustic structures, were differentially influenced by alcohol, likely reflecting a diversity in the neural mechanisms required for their production. Remarkably, these effects on vocalizations occurred without overt effects on general behavioral measures, and importantly, they occurred within a range of BEC that can be considered risky for humans. Our results suggest that the variable effects of alcohol on finch song reflect differential alcohol sensitivity of the brain circuitry elements that control different aspects of song production. They also point to finches as an informative model for understanding how alcohol affects the neuronal circuits that control the production of learned motor behaviors.
| S-EPMC4275239 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Under climate change, increasing air temperature average and variability pose substantial thermal challenges to animals. While plasticity in thermoregulatory traits could potentially attenuate this impact, whether thermal acclimatisation can occur quickly enough to track weather variability in hot climates is unknown in any endotherm, and sex differences have never been tested. We investigated acclimatisation responsiveness of male and female wild zebra finches to short-term (< 2 weeks) summer temperature fluctuations in the Australian desert. Hotter weather before respirometry trials triggered a typical acclimatisation response (especially at chamber temperature Tchamb ≥ 40). However, acclimatisation occurred remarkably rapidly: metabolic rate responded within just one day, while body temperature (Tb) and evaporative cooling capacity (EHL/MHP) were best predicted by weather on the trial day; whereas evaporative water loss responded more slowly (1 week). Nonetheless, rapid acclimatisation only occurred in males, and females had higher Tb and lower EHL/MHP than males, potentially increasing hyperthermia risk. Furthermore, acclimatisation did not translate into greater acute heat tolerance (i.e. ability to tolerate Tchamb = 46 °C). Our results therefore reveal surprisingly rapid acclimatisation and even anticipatory adjustments to heat. However, with no changes in acute heat tolerance, and in females, phenotypic flexibility may provide only limited buffering against the detrimental impact of heatwaves.
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Project description:BACKGROUND: Birdsong and human vocal communication are both complex behaviours which show striking similarities mainly thought to be present in the area of development and learning. Recent studies, however, suggest that there are also parallels in vocal production mechanisms. While it has been long thought that vocal tract filtering, as it occurs in human speech, only plays a minor role in birdsong there is an increasing number of studies indicating the presence of sound filtering mechanisms in bird vocalizations as well. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Correlating high-speed X-ray cinematographic imaging of singing zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) to song structures we identified beak gape and the expansion of the oropharyngeal-esophageal cavity (OEC) as potential articulators. We subsequently manipulated both structures in an experiment in which we played sound through the vocal tract of dead birds. Comparing acoustic input with acoustic output showed that OEC expansion causes an energy shift towards lower frequencies and an amplitude increase whereas a wide beak gape emphasizes frequencies around 5 kilohertz and above. CONCLUSION: These findings confirm that birds can modulate their song by using vocal tract filtering and demonstrate how OEC and beak gape contribute to this modulation.
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Project description:The endogenous opioid system is evolutionarily conserved across reptiles, birds and mammals and is known to modulate varied brain functions such as learning, memory, cognition and reward. To date, most of the behavioral and anatomical studies in songbirds have mainly focused on μ-opioid receptors (ORs). Expression patterns of δ-ORs in zebra finches, a well-studied species of songbird have not yet been reported, possibly due to the high sequence similarity amongst different opioid receptors. In the present study, a specific riboprobe against the δ-OR mRNA was used to perform fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on sections from the male zebra finch brain. We found that δ-OR mRNA was expressed in different parts of the pallium, basal ganglia, cerebellum and the hippocampus. Amongst the song control and auditory nuclei, HVC (abbreviation used as a formal name) and NIf (nucleus interfacialis nidopallii) strongly express δ-OR mRNA and stand out from the surrounding nidopallium. Whereas the expression of δ-OR mRNA is moderate in LMAN (lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium), it is low in the MSt (medial striatum), Area X, DLM (dorsolateral nucleus of the medial thalamus), RA (robust nucleus of the arcopallium) of the song control circuit and Field L, Ov (nucleus ovoidalis) and MLd (nucleus mesencephalicus lateralis, pars dorsalis) of the auditory pathway. Our results suggest that δ-ORs may be involved in modulating singing, song learning as well as spatial learning in zebra finches.
| S-EPMC8407588 | biostudies-literature