Varied impacts of social relationships on neuroendocrine state.

Social relationships, affiliative social attachments, are important for many species. The best studied types of relationships are monogamous pair bonds. However, it remains unclear how generalizable models of pair bonding are across types of social attachments.

Song system neuroanatomy, and immediate early gene expression in a finch species with extensive male and female song.

Birdsong is a relatively well-studied behavior, both due to its importance as a model for vocal production learning and as an intriguing complex social behavior. Until the last few decades, work on birdsong focused almost exclusively on males. However, it is now widely accepted that female song not only exists, but is fairly common throughout the oscine passerines.

The neural distribution of the avian homologue of oxytocin, mesotocin, in two songbird species, the zebra finch and the canary: A potential role in song perception and production.

The avian homologue of oxytocin (OT), formerly called mesotocin, influences social behaviors in songbirds and potentially song production. We sought to characterize the distribution of OT peptide in the brain of two songbird species: canaries (Serinus canaria) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). To visualize OT, we performed immunocytochemistry using an antibody previously shown to identify OT in avian species.

Sex differences in seasonal brain plasticity and the neuroendocrine regulation of vocal behavior in songbirds.

Birdsong is controlled in part by a discrete network of interconnected brain nuclei regulated in turn by steroid hormones and environmental stimuli. This complex interaction results in neural changes that occur seasonally as the environment varies (e.g.