Habituation in songbirds

Songbirds respond to initial playback of a recorded conspecific song in numerous ways, from changes in gene expression in the brain to changes in overt physical activity. When the same song is presented repeatedly, responses have been observed to habituate at multiple levels: molecular, cellular and organismal. Core criteria of habituation have been established at each level, although in no case have all the formal parameters been rigorously measured. At the level of overt behavior, classical field studies showed that territorial birds respond to the song of a potential challenger with a variety of behaviors, and many (but not all) of these behaviors decline with repeated stimulus presentation. More recent laboratory studies have defined analogous responses to song presentation in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), the dominant species in current molecular and neurobiological research and one that does not use song for territorial defense. Studies in the zebra finch have also demonstrated activation followed by habituation of responses measured at both electrophysiological and molecular (gene expression and signal transduction) levels. In all cases, habituation is specific for a very particular stimulus--an individual song presented in a particular context. There are strong correlations between habituation measurements made at these different levels, but some dissociations have also been observed, implying that molecular, electrophysiological and behavioral habituations are not equivalent manifestations of a single core process.