Cargando…

Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit

Songbirds learn their songs by trial-and-error experimentation, producing highly variable vocal output as juveniles. By comparing their own sounds to the song of a tutor, young songbirds gradually converge to a stable song that can be a remarkably good copy of the tutor song. Here we show that vocal...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ölveczky, Bence P, Andalman, Aaron S, Fee, Michale S
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1069649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15826219
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030153
_version_ 1782123378427035648
author Ölveczky, Bence P
Andalman, Aaron S
Fee, Michale S
author_facet Ölveczky, Bence P
Andalman, Aaron S
Fee, Michale S
author_sort Ölveczky, Bence P
collection PubMed
description Songbirds learn their songs by trial-and-error experimentation, producing highly variable vocal output as juveniles. By comparing their own sounds to the song of a tutor, young songbirds gradually converge to a stable song that can be a remarkably good copy of the tutor song. Here we show that vocal variability in the learning songbird is induced by a basal-ganglia-related circuit, the output of which projects to the motor pathway via the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the nidopallium (LMAN). We found that pharmacological inactivation of LMAN dramatically reduced acoustic and sequence variability in the songs of juvenile zebra finches, doing so in a rapid and reversible manner. In addition, recordings from LMAN neurons projecting to the motor pathway revealed highly variable spiking activity across song renditions, showing that LMAN may act as a source of variability. Lastly, pharmacological blockade of synaptic inputs from LMAN to its target premotor area also reduced song variability. Our results establish that, in the juvenile songbird, the exploratory motor behavior required to learn a complex motor sequence is dependent on a dedicated neural circuit homologous to cortico-basal ganglia circuits in mammals.
format Text
id pubmed-1069649
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2005
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-10696492005-03-29 Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit Ölveczky, Bence P Andalman, Aaron S Fee, Michale S PLoS Biol Research Article Songbirds learn their songs by trial-and-error experimentation, producing highly variable vocal output as juveniles. By comparing their own sounds to the song of a tutor, young songbirds gradually converge to a stable song that can be a remarkably good copy of the tutor song. Here we show that vocal variability in the learning songbird is induced by a basal-ganglia-related circuit, the output of which projects to the motor pathway via the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the nidopallium (LMAN). We found that pharmacological inactivation of LMAN dramatically reduced acoustic and sequence variability in the songs of juvenile zebra finches, doing so in a rapid and reversible manner. In addition, recordings from LMAN neurons projecting to the motor pathway revealed highly variable spiking activity across song renditions, showing that LMAN may act as a source of variability. Lastly, pharmacological blockade of synaptic inputs from LMAN to its target premotor area also reduced song variability. Our results establish that, in the juvenile songbird, the exploratory motor behavior required to learn a complex motor sequence is dependent on a dedicated neural circuit homologous to cortico-basal ganglia circuits in mammals. Public Library of Science 2005-05 2005-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC1069649/ /pubmed/15826219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030153 Text en Copyright: © 2005 Ölveczky et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ölveczky, Bence P
Andalman, Aaron S
Fee, Michale S
Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit
title Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit
title_full Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit
title_fullStr Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit
title_full_unstemmed Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit
title_short Vocal Experimentation in the Juvenile Songbird Requires a Basal Ganglia Circuit
title_sort vocal experimentation in the juvenile songbird requires a basal ganglia circuit
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1069649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15826219
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030153
work_keys_str_mv AT olveczkybencep vocalexperimentationinthejuvenilesongbirdrequiresabasalgangliacircuit
AT andalmanaarons vocalexperimentationinthejuvenilesongbirdrequiresabasalgangliacircuit
AT feemichales vocalexperimentationinthejuvenilesongbirdrequiresabasalgangliacircuit