Using temperature to analyse temporal dynamics in the songbird motor pathway.

Full Abstract

Many complex behaviours, like speech or music, have a hierarchical organization with structure on many timescales, but it is not known how the brain controls the timing of behavioural sequences, or whether different circuits control different timescales of the behaviour. Here we address these issues by using temperature to manipulate the biophysical dynamics in different regions of the songbird forebrain involved in song production. We find that cooling the premotor nucleus HVC (formerly known as the high vocal centre) slows song speed across all timescales by up to 45 per cent but only slightly alters the acoustic structure, whereas cooling the downstream motor nucleus RA (robust nucleus of the arcopallium) has no observable effect on song timing. Our observations suggest that dynamics within HVC are involved in the control of song timing, perhaps through a chain-like organization. Local manipulation of brain temperature should be broadly applicable to the identification of neural circuitry that controls the timing of behavioural sequences and, more generally, to the study of the origin and role of oscillatory and other forms of brain dynamics in neural systems.

Author information

Author/s: Long, Michael A (MA); Fee, Michale S (MS);

Affiliation: McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

Grants: DC009280 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; K99 DC009280-02 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; MH067105 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; R01 MH067105-04 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Nature (Nature), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Nov; vol 456 (issue 7219) : pp 189-94

Dates: Created 2008/11/13; Completed 2008/11/24; Revised 2009/08/12;

PMID: 19005546, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 8/21/2009, IMS Date: 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Nature. 2008 Nov 13;456(7219):187-8. (PMID: 19005545)

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