Singing To Females Makes Male Birds’ Brains Happy

The melodious singing of birds has been long appreciated by humans, and has often been thought to reflect a particularly positive emotional state of the singer. Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have now demonstrated that this can be true. When male birds sang to attract females, specific “reward” areas of their brain were strongly activated. Such strong brain activation resulted in a similar change in brain reward function to that which is caused by addictive drugs.

The brain of humans and other animals is programmed to have a positive emotional response to rewarding stimuli, such as food or sex. A critical part of this reward signal is thought to be provided by increased activity of neurons containing dopamine in the brain ventral tegmental area, VTA. Along with natural rewards, the same brain circuits can also be strongly activated by artificial rewards such as addictive drugs.

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