ArticleeLife2017
Sexual dimorphism in striatal dopaminergic responses promotes monogamy in social songbirds.
Article in eLife, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural mechanism of dopamine modulating singing related behavior in songbirds: an updated review.PeerJ · 2025Review
- Assessing female call responses to syllable level details in song.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- The motivation to flock correlates with vocal-social behaviors and dopamine-related gene expression in male European starlings.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
- Reciprocal processes of sensory perception and social bonding: an integrated social-sensory framework of social behavior.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2022Review
- Differences in dopamine and opioid receptor ratios in the nucleus accumbens relate to physical contact and undirected song in pair-bonded zebra finches.Behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Birdsong and the Neural Regulation of Positive Emotion.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Article
- Balanced imitation sustains song culture in zebra finches.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Immunolabeling Provides Evidence for Subregions in the Songbird Nucleus Accumbens and Suggests a Context-Dependent Role in Song in Male European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).Brain, behavior and evolution · 2021Article
- Shared transcriptional responses to con- and heterospecific behavioral antagonists in a wild songbird.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Regularities in zebra finch song beyond the repeated motif.Behavioural processes · 2019Article
- Learning auditory discriminations from observation is efficient but less robust than learning from experience.Nature communications · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In many songbird species, males sing to attract females and repel rivals. How can gregarious, non-territorial songbirds such as zebra finches, where females have access to numerous males, sustain monogamy? We found that the dopaminergic reward circuitry of zebra finches can simultaneously promote social cohesion and breeding boundaries. Surprisingly, in unmated males but not in females, striatal dopamine neurotransmission was elevated after hearing songs. Behaviorally too, unmated males but not females persistently exchanged mild punishments in return for songs. Song reinforcement diminished when dopamine receptors were blocked. In females, we observed song reinforcement exclusively to the mate's song, although their striatal dopamine neurotransmission was only slightly elevated. These findings suggest that song-triggered dopaminergic activation serves a dual function in social songbirds: as low-threshold social reinforcement in males and as ultra-selective sexual reinforcement in females. Co-evolution of sexually dimorphic reinforcement systems can explain the coexistence of gregariousness and monogamy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.