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| Research article summary (published 8 Sep 2008): |
Top-down regulation of plasticity in the birdsong system: "premotor" activity in the nucleus HVC predicts song variability better than it predicts song features.
Full Abstract
We studied real-time changes in brain activity during active vocal learning in the zebra finch songbird. The song nucleus HVC is required for the production of learned song. To quantify the relationship of HVC activity and behavior, HVC population activity during repeated vocal sequences (motifs) was recorded and temporally aligned relative to the motif, millisecond by millisecond. Somewhat surprisingly, HVC activity did not reliably predict any vocal feature except amplitude and, to a lesser extent, entropy and pitch goodness (sound periodicity). Variance in "premotor" HVC activity did not reliably predict variance in behavior. In contrast, HVC activity inversely predicted the variance of amplitude, entropy, frequency, pitch, and FM. We reasoned that, if HVC was involved in song learning, the relationship of HVC activity to learned features would be developmentally regulated. To test this hypothesis, we compared the HVC song feature relationships in adults and juveniles in the sensorimotor "babbling" period. We found that the relationship of HVC activity to variance in FM was developmentally regulated, with the greatest difference at an HVC vocalization lag of 50 ms. Collectively, these data show that, millisecond by millisecond, bursts in HVC activity predict song stability on-line during singing, whereas decrements in HVC activity predict plasticity. These relationships between neural activity and plasticity may play a role in vocal learning in songbirds by enabling the selective stabilization of parts of the song that match a learned tutor model.
Author information
Author/s: Day, Nancy F (NF); Kinnischtzke, Amanda K (AK); Adam, Murtaza (M); Nick, Teresa A (TA);
Affiliation: Dept. of Neuroscience and Center for Neurobehavioral Development, Univ. of Minnesota Academic Health Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Grants: K02 DC008521-02 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; K02-DC-008521 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; NI5T32-GM-008471-15 (Agency:NIGMS NIH HHS) ; R01 DC007384-02 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; R01 DC007384-03 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; R01-DC-007384 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS)
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Journal of neurophysiology (J Neurophysiol), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2008-Nov; vol 100 (issue 5) : pp 2956-65
Dates: Created 2008/11/12; Completed 2009/04/20; Revised 2009/11/03;
PMID: 18784276, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/4/2009, IMS Date: 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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