TY - JOUR
T1 - Brain development, song learning and mate choice in birds
T2 - A review and experimental test of the "nutritional stress hypothesis"
AU - Nowicki, S.
AU - Searcy, W. A.
AU - Peters, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank Martin Beebee, Staffan Bensch, Dennis Hasselquist, Melissa Hughes, Peter Narins, Jeff Podos, Torbjörn von Schantz, R. Haven Wiley and an anonymous reviewer for helpful discussions of this material and the manuscript, and Bill Hoese and Rich Mooney for help with our neuroanatomical work. Supported by the National Science Foundation through grants IBN-9408360 to S.N. and IBN-9523635 to W.A.S. All work reported herein complies with the ‘‘Principles of Animal Care,’’ publication No. 86-23 revised 1985, of the National Institutes of Health and with local and U.S. federal laws, and was approved by the Duke University Animal Care and Use Committee.
PY - 2002/12/1
Y1 - 2002/12/1
N2 - The nutritional stress hypothesis explains how learned features of song, such as complexity and local dialect structure, can serve as indicators of male quality of interest to females in mate choice. The link between song and quality comes about because the brain structures underlying song learning largely develop during the first few months post-hatching. During this same period, songbirds are likely to be subject to nutritional and other stresses. Only individuals faring well in the face of stress are able to invest the resources in brain development necessary to optimize song learning. Learned features of song thus become reliable indicators of male quality, with reliability maintained by the developmental costs of song. We review the background and assumptions of the nutritional stress hypothesis, and present new experimental data demonstrating an effect of nestling nutrition on nestling growth, brain development, and song learning, providing support for a key prediction of the hypothesis.
AB - The nutritional stress hypothesis explains how learned features of song, such as complexity and local dialect structure, can serve as indicators of male quality of interest to females in mate choice. The link between song and quality comes about because the brain structures underlying song learning largely develop during the first few months post-hatching. During this same period, songbirds are likely to be subject to nutritional and other stresses. Only individuals faring well in the face of stress are able to invest the resources in brain development necessary to optimize song learning. Learned features of song thus become reliable indicators of male quality, with reliability maintained by the developmental costs of song. We review the background and assumptions of the nutritional stress hypothesis, and present new experimental data demonstrating an effect of nestling nutrition on nestling growth, brain development, and song learning, providing support for a key prediction of the hypothesis.
KW - Indicator mechanism
KW - Neural development
KW - Nutritional stress
KW - Sexual selection
KW - Song learning
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U2 - 10.1007/s00359-002-0361-3
DO - 10.1007/s00359-002-0361-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 12471497
AN - SCOPUS:0036998954
VL - 188
SP - 1003
EP - 1014
JO - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
SN - 0340-7594
IS - 11-12
ER -