ReviewBehavioural processes2019
Song practice as a rewarding form of play in songbirds.
Review in Behavioural processes, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) can show spontaneous vocal flexibility when exposed to dynamically changing rhythmic sounds.Animal cognition · 2026Article
- Sexually-motivated song correlates with opioid- and dopamine-related gene expression in the rostral nucleus accumbens of male European starlings.Behavioural brain research · 2026Article
- Neural activation in a septal area is related to intrinsic motivation for non-courtship singing in adult zebra finches.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Evidence that flocking behavior is rewarded by singing, flock mates, and mu opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens.PloS one · 2025Article
- RNA-sequencing reveals a shared neurotranscriptomic profile in the medial preoptic area of highly social songbirds and rats.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2024Article
- Goal-directed vocal planning in a songbird.eLife · 2024Article
- Daily singing of adult songbirds functions to maintain song performance independently of auditory feedback and age.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Vocal complexity in a socially complex corvid: gradation, diversity and lack of common call repertoire in male rooks.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Distinct patterns of activity within columns of the periaqueductal gray are associated with functionally distinct birdsongs.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2023Article
- The medial preoptic area and its projections to the ventral tegmental area and the periaqueductal gray are activated in response to social play behavior in juvenile rats.Behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- The motivation to flock correlates with vocal-social behaviors and dopamine-related gene expression in male European starlings.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
- Enhancing their quality of life: environmental enrichment for poultry.Poultry science · 2023Article
- Using seasonality and birdsong to understand mechanisms underlying context-appropriate shifts in social motivation and reward.Hormones and behavior · 2022Review
- A neural circuit perspective on brain aromatase.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Birdsong and the Neural Regulation of Positive Emotion.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- The Role of the Endogenous Opioid System in the Vocal Behavior of Songbirds and Its Possible Role in Vocal Learning.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
- Mu opioid receptor stimulation in the medial preoptic area or nucleus accumbens facilitates song and reward in flocking European starlings.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- 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
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In adult songbirds, the primary functions of song are mate attraction and territory defense; yet, many songbirds sing at high rates as juveniles and outside these primary contexts as adults. Singing outside primary contexts is critical for song learning and maintenance, and ultimately necessary for breeding success. However, this type of singing (i.e., song "practice") occurs even in the absence of immediate or obvious extrinsic reinforcement; that is, it does not attract mates or repel competitors. Here we review studies that support the hypothesis that song practice is stimulated and maintained by intrinsic reward mechanisms (i.e., that it is associated with a positive affective state). Additionally, we propose that song practice can be considered a rewarding form of play behavior similar to forms of play observed in multiple young animals as they practice sequences of motor events that are used later in primary adult reproductive contexts. This review highlights research suggesting at least partially overlapping roles for neural reward systems in birdsong and mammalian play and evidence that steroid hormones modify these systems to shift animals from periods of intrinsically rewarded motor exploration (i.e., singing in birds and play in mammals) to the use of similar motor patterns in primary reproductive contexts.
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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.