Use Of Vocal Communication During Their Adolescent...

Zebra finches learn a form of vocal communication during their adolescent development; this allows these animals to be used to assess the effects of abused drugs on development of this learned behavior. In avian species it is difficult to measure drug self-administration, which is a disadvantage to the experimental study. We have worked to create a conditioned place preference method, which determines the alteration of vocal learning and alteration of reinforced properties of abused drugs. A two-sectioned chamber, separated by a divider, was constructed from standard birdcages, along with colored sidings, yellow and green, in each chamber. Pre-treatment preferences was determined by the placing of the finches in the middle of both†¦show more content†¦These results clearly demonstrate that cocaine produces a place preference in zebra finches. These results show that the reinforcing properties of abused drugs can be measure through conditioned place preference methods in zebra finches. We are currently working to clearly establish the dose-response relationship and half-maximal effective dosage of cocaine (EC50). Determination of EC50 will allow potential increasing and decreasing effects of other treatments on the reinforcing properties of cocaine to be assessed. Introduction Zebra finch songbirds have been essential for better understanding of the neurobiology regarding drug abuse (Troyer and Bottjer, 2001). Since drug abuse is a type of learned behavior, we want to know if the reinforcing properties of drugs are also altered by developmental cocaine exposure. Zebra finches are a sociable species and singing is a form of vocal communication learned during their adolescent development (Kuhl, 2003). They learn to sing by memorizing their parent’s song or an adult â€Å"tutor†. The tutor song serves as a template to evaluate the quality of the developing bird’s song (Troyer and Bottjer, 2001). This allows us to use these animals as models to study the effects of abused drugs on development of this learned behavior. We have worked to create a conditioned place preference method to determine the