Seasonal changes in avian song control circuits do not cause seasonal changes in song discrimination in song sparrows.

In seasonally breeding songbirds, brain nuclei of the song control system that act in song perception change in size between seasons. It has been hypothesized that seasonal regression of song nuclei may impair song discrimination. We tested this hypothesis in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), a species in which males share song types with neighbors and must discriminate between similar songs in territorial interactions. We predicted that song sparrows with regressed song systems would have greater difficulty in discriminating between similar songs. Sparrows were housed either on short days (SD) and had regressed song circuits, or were exposed to long days and implanted with testosterone (LD+T) to induce full growth of the song circuits. We conducted two experiments using a GO/NO-GO operant conditioning paradigm to measure song discrimination ability of each group. Birds learned four (experiment 1) or three (experiment 2) pairs of song types sequentially, with each pair more similar in the number of shared song elements and thus more difficult to discriminate. Circulating T levels differed between the SD and LD+T groups. The telencephalic song nuclei HVc, RA, and area X were larger in the LD+T birds. The two groups of sparrows did not differ, however, in their ability to learn to discriminate between shared song types, regardless of the songs' similarity. These results suggest that seasonal changes in the song control system do not affect birds' ability to make difficult song discriminations. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.