SOME people get their kicks from drugs and alcohol. Male birds might get equally high while wooing a mate, a euphoria they don鈥檛 feel when singing solo.
and Ya-Chun Huang of the Riken Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan, found that when a male zebra finch sang directly to a potential mate, neurons were activated in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA.
Neurons in the equivalent human brain region are activated when people take drugs such as cocaine, which triggers the release of dopamine, the brain鈥檚 鈥渞eward鈥� chemical.
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In the finch鈥檚 brain, the release of dopamine stimulated a nearby region that coordinates singing and learning in a positive feedback loop (PLoS ONE, ). In other words, singing triggered a feeling of reward, which made the finches sing more.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the clearest evidence so far that singing to a female is rewarding for male birds,鈥� says Hessler. This isn鈥檛 surprising, he adds, since courtship is vital to reproduction in birds.
The study suggests that male singing triggers a long-term change in neural communication in the VTA, which could perhaps be associated with feeling good, says , a bird neurologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
鈥淏ut it鈥檚 hard to tell from the results whether the male brains are actually 鈥榟appy鈥�,鈥� Jarvis says.
Hessler plans to study female finches to see if being serenaded makes them equally euphoric.
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