Jove
Visualize
Contact Us

Related Concept Videos

Mate Choice01:20

Mate Choice

Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.
Primary Motives: Sleep, Sex, and Pain Avoidance01:24

Primary Motives: Sleep, Sex, and Pain Avoidance

Primary motives such as sleep, sex, and pain avoidance are crucial drivers of behavior in humans and animals. These motives ensure survival, reproductive success, and overall well-being by prompting actions that meet essential bodily needs.
Sleep is a fundamental physiological drive that fosters a state of restfulness crucial for several bodily functions. It facilitates body restoration, the process by which the body repairs, rejuvenates, and maintains itself during sleep, including memory...
Optimal Foraging00:48

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
Passionate Love01:26

Passionate Love

Passionate love is a powerful emotional and physiological state that plays a significant role in human relationships. It is characterized by an intense longing for connection with another person and is often considered the foundation of romantic attraction. Psychological research identifies three fundamental components of passionate love: cognition, emotion, and behavior.Cognitive AspectsCognition in passionate love involves idealization and persistent thoughts about the loved one. Individuals...
Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Oral01:16

Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Oral

The oral stage is the initial phase of Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development, occurring from birth to approximately 12 to 18 months. During this period, the infant's mouth serves as the primary source of pleasure, with actions such as sucking, chewing, biting, and drinking playing a crucial role in reducing tension. These activities are essential not only for nourishment but also for the infant's psychological and emotional satisfaction.
Weaning, typically occurring around the age...
Epiphytes, Parasites, and Carnivores02:40

Epiphytes, Parasites, and Carnivores

Plants often form mutualistic relationships with soil-dwelling fungi or bacteria to enhance their roots’ nutrient uptake ability. Root-colonizing fungi (e.g., mycorrhizae) increase a plant’s root surface area, which promotes nutrient absorption. While root-colonizing, nitrogen-fixing bacteria (e.g., rhizobia) convert atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into ammonia (NH3), making nitrogen available to plants for various biological functions. For example, nitrogen is essential for the biosynthesis of the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Sexually-motivated song correlates with opioid- and dopamine-related gene expression in the rostral nucleus accumbens of male European starlings.

Behavioural brain research·2025
Same author

Evidence that flocking behavior is rewarded by singing, flock mates, and mu opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens.

PloS one·2025
Same author

RNA-sequencing reveals a shared neurotranscriptomic profile in the medial preoptic area of highly social songbirds and rats.

Genes, brain, and behavior·2024
Same author

Conditioned preferences: Gated by experience, context, and endocrine systems.

Hormones and behavior·2024
Same author

Distinct patterns of activity within columns of the periaqueductal gray are associated with functionally distinct birdsongs.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·2023
Same author

Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).

BMC neuroscience·2023
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Operant Conditioning Task to Measure Song Preference in Zebra Finches
06:40

Operant Conditioning Task to Measure Song Preference in Zebra Finches

Published on: December 26, 2019

Pleasure seeking and birdsong.

Lauren V Riters1

  • 1Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 428 Birge Hall, 430 Lincoln Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA. LVRiters@wisc.edu

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
|January 22, 2011
PubMed
Summary

Songbirds

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior
  • Bioacoustics

Background:

  • Songbirds exhibit high rates of singing, indicating strong motivation and potential reward from vocal communication.
  • The neural mechanisms underlying the motivation to communicate are not well understood.
  • Dopamine and opioid neuropeptides are crucial for reward-seeking and pleasure, and are present in songbird brain regions associated with motivation and reward, such as the medial preoptic nucleus (mPOA) and ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review evidence supporting hypotheses on the distinct roles of dopamine and opioid neurochemicals in regulating the motivation for different types of song production in songbirds.
  • To explore how dopamine activity influences the motivation for undirected versus female-directed song.
  • To examine the intrinsic and social reinforcement mechanisms involving opioids in songbird communication.

More Related Videos

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) with Auditory Stimulation in Songbirds
13:05

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) with Auditory Stimulation in Songbirds

Published on: June 3, 2013

A Lightweight, Headphones-based System for Manipulating Auditory Feedback in Songbirds
10:13

A Lightweight, Headphones-based System for Manipulating Auditory Feedback in Songbirds

Published on: November 26, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Operant Conditioning Task to Measure Song Preference in Zebra Finches
06:40

Operant Conditioning Task to Measure Song Preference in Zebra Finches

Published on: December 26, 2019

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) with Auditory Stimulation in Songbirds
13:05

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) with Auditory Stimulation in Songbirds

Published on: June 3, 2013

A Lightweight, Headphones-based System for Manipulating Auditory Feedback in Songbirds
10:13

A Lightweight, Headphones-based System for Manipulating Auditory Feedback in Songbirds

Published on: November 26, 2012

Main Methods:

  • This study is a review of existing research, synthesizing findings from various lines of investigation.
  • It examines the roles of dopamine and opioid systems in the medial preoptic nucleus (mPOA) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) of songbirds.
  • The review analyzes how these neurochemical systems relate to different song contexts: undirected song and female-directed song.

Main Results:

  • Distinct dopamine activity patterns are hypothesized to modulate the motivation for producing undirected and female-directed song.
  • Undirected song is proposed to be intrinsically reinforced by the immediate release of opioids triggered by the act of singing.
  • Female-directed song is suggested to be socially reinforced by opioids released during social interactions.

Conclusions:

  • Dopamine and opioid systems differentially regulate the motivation and reinforcement of song in songbirds based on social context.
  • The act of singing itself may provide intrinsic reward through opioid release for undirected song.
  • Social interactions provide extrinsic reward via opioid release, motivating female-directed song.