In birds and higher mammals, auditory experience during development is critical to discriminate sound patterns in adulthood. However, the neural and molecular nature of this acquired ability remains elusive. In fruit flies, acoustic perception has been thought to be innate. Here we report, surprisingly, that auditory experience of a species-specific courtship song in developing Drosophila shapes adult song perception and resultant sexual behavior. Preferences in the song-response behaviors of both males and females were tuned by social acoustic exposure during development. We examined the molecular and cellular determinants of this social acoustic learning and found that GABA signaling acting on the GABAA receptor Rdl in the pC1 neurons, the integration node for courtship stimuli, regulated auditory tuning and sexual behavior. These findings demonstrate that maturation of auditory perception in flies is unexpectedly plastic and is acquired socially, providing a model to investigate how song learning regulates mating preference in insects.

中文翻译：

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听觉经验控制果蝇歌曲辨别力和性反应的成熟

在鸟类和高等哺乳动物中，发育过程中的听觉经验对于区分成年期的声音模式至关重要。然而，这种获得能力的神经和分子性质仍然难以捉摸。在果蝇中，听觉被认为是与生俱来的。令人惊讶的是，我们在这里报告了在果蝇发育过程中特定物种求爱歌曲的听觉体验塑造了成人歌曲的感知和由此产生的性行为。男性和女性的歌曲反应行为偏好在发育过程中通过社会声学暴露进行调整。我们检查了这种社会声学学习的分子和细胞决定因素，发现 GABA 信号作用于 pC1 神经元中的 GABAA 受体 Rdl，这是求爱刺激的整合节点，调节听觉调谐和性行为。