Social context modulates singing-related neural activity in the songbird forebrain

Birdsong is a complex vocal behavior learned during early life in a process similar to the learning of human speech. Like speech, singing is a social behavior-male songbirds often use it in courtship or in territorial defense. Here we show that, in the adult zebra finch, the pattern of singing-related neural activity in several high-level brain areas specialized for song learning is dependent on whether a bird sings by itself or to another bird; thus, this activity can indicate not only that a bird is singing but also the social context of the song.