Constance Scharff

TL;DR: It is speculated that attentional tuning to the rhythms of echolocation calls on the receivers' side might make the production of equally steady rhythmic social vocalizations beneficial.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that a lentivirally mediated FoxP2 knockdown in Area X of zebra finches downregulates the expression of VLDLR, one of the two reelin receptors, which raises the possibility that the regulatory relationship between FoxP 2 and VLD LR guides structural plasticity towards the subset of FoxP1-positive MSNs in an activity dependent manner via the reelin pathway.

TL;DR: The higher levels of song type matches in the first year and song overlapping by birds in their second year suggest that these are communicative strategies to establish relationships with competing males and/or choosy females.

TL;DR: The strong correlation between repertoire complexity and motif regularity suggests that birds possess a mechanism that regulates the temporal placement of shared motifs in a manner that takes repertoire complexity into account.

TL;DR: This study shows that even transitory developmental stress can have negative consequences on the cellular processes underlying the development of neural circuits, which may explain how poor nutrition leads to smaller HVC volume.