Male songbirds produce female-directed songs in spring that convey a state of sexual motivation. Many songbirds also sing in fall flocks in affiliative/gregarious contexts in which song is linked to an intrinsic positive affective state. The periaqueductal gray (PAG) in mammals, which is organized into functional columns, integrates information from multiple brain regions and relays this information to vocal motor areas so that an animal emits a vocal signal reflective of its affective state. Here, we test the hypothesis that distinct columns in the songbird PAG play roles in the distinct affective states communicated by sexually motivated and gregarious song. We quantified the numbers of immediate early gene ZENK-positive cells in 16 PAG subregions in male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) after singing gregarious or sexually motivated song. Results suggest that distinct PAG columns in songbirds context-specifically regulate song, agonistic, and courtship behaviors. A second exploratory, functional tract-tracing study also demonstrated that inputs to the PAG from specific subregions of the medial preoptic nucleus may contribute to gregarious song and behaviors indicative of social dominance. Together, findings suggest that conserved PAG columns and inputs from the preoptic nucleus may play a role in context-specific vocal and other social behaviors.

中文翻译：

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导水管周围灰质柱内不同的活动模式与功能不同的鸟鸣相关


雄性鸣禽在春天发出由雌性主导的歌曲，传达一种性动机的状态。许多鸣禽也会在亲和/群居的环境中成群地歌唱，在这种环境中，歌曲与内在的积极情感状态相关。哺乳动物的导水管周围灰质（PAG）被组织成功能柱，整合来自多个大脑区域的信息，并将这些信息传递到发声运动区域，以便动物发出反映其情感状态的声音信号。在这里，我们测试了这样一个假设：鸣禽 PAG 中的不同列在由性动机和群居歌曲传达的不同情感状态中发挥着作用。我们对雄性欧洲椋鸟 (Sturnus vulgaris) 在唱群居或性动机歌曲后 16 个 PAG 亚区中立即早期基因 ZENK 阳性细胞的数量进行了定量。结果表明，鸣禽中不同的 PAG 列特定地调节鸣叫、竞争和求偶行为。第二项探索性功能性纤维束追踪研究还表明，内侧视前核特定亚区域对 PAG 的输入可能有助于群居歌曲和表明社会主导地位的行为。总之，研究结果表明，保守的 PAG 柱和视前核的输入可能在特定环境的声音和其他社会行为中发挥作用。