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Journal ArticleDOI

A comparative study of the behavioral deficits following lesions of various parts of the zebra finch song system: implications for vocal learning.

01 Sep 1991-The Journal of Neuroscience (Society for Neuroscience)-Vol. 11, Iss: 9, pp 2896-2913
TL;DR: It is concluded that Area X and LMAN contribute differently to song acquisition: the song variability that is typical of vocal development persists following early deafness or lesions of Area X but ends abruptly following removal of LMAN.
Abstract: Song production in song birds is controlled by an efferent pathway. Appended to this pathway is a “recursive loop” that is necessary for song acquisition but not for the production of learned song. Since zebra finches learn their song by imitating external models, we speculated that the importance of the recursive loop for learning might derive from its processing of auditory feedback during song acquisition. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the effects on song in birds deafened early in life and birds with early lesions in either of two nuclei--Area X and the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (LMAN). These nuclei are part of the recursive loop. The three treatments affected song development differently, as reflected by various parameters of the adult song of these birds. Whereas LMAN lesions resulted in songs with monotonous repetitions of a single note complex, songs of Area X-lesioned birds consisted of rambling series of unusually long and variable notes. Furthermore, whereas song of LMAN lesioned birds stabilized early, song stability as seen in intact birds was never achieved in Area X-lesioned birds. Early deafness also resulted in poorly structured and unstable song. We conclude that Area X and LMAN contribute differently to song acquisition: the song variability that is typical of vocal development persists following early deafness or lesions of Area X but ends abruptly following removal of LMAN. Apparently, LMAN plays a crucial role in fostering the kinds of circuit plasticity necessary for learning.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
14 Mar 1997-Science
TL;DR: Findings in this work indicate that dopaminergic neurons in the primate whose fluctuating output apparently signals changes or errors in the predictions of future salient and rewarding events can be understood through quantitative theories of adaptive optimizing control.
Abstract: The capacity to predict future events permits a creature to detect, model, and manipulate the causal structure of its interactions with its environment. Behavioral experiments suggest that learning is driven by changes in the expectations about future salient events such as rewards and punishments. Physiological work has recently complemented these studies by identifying dopaminergic neurons in the primate whose fluctuating output apparently signals changes or errors in the predictions of future salient and rewarding events. Taken together, these findings can be understood through quantitative theories of adaptive optimizing control.

8,163 citations


Cites background or methods from "A comparative study of the behavior..."

  • ...The variability of syllable ordering in a song was quantified using the stereotypy score of Scharff and Nottebohm [13], excluding the variability in the number of introductory notes and in the end syllable of a song bout....

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  • ...of a loss of neurotrophic input from LMAN [12,13]....

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Book
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: The relationship between the structural and physiological mechanisms of the brain/nervous system has been studied in this paper, from the molecular level up to that of human consciousness, and contributions cover one of the most fascinating areas of science.
Abstract: Shows the many advances in the field of cognitive neurosciences. From the molecular level up to that of human consciousness, the contributions cover one of the most fascinating areas of science - the relationship between the structural and physiological mechanisms of the brain/nervous system.

1,531 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Human speech and birdsong have numerous parallels, with striking similarities in how sensory experience is internalized and used to shape vocal outputs, and how learning is enhanced during a critical period of development.
Abstract: Human speech and birdsong have numerous parallels. Both humans and songbirds learn their complex vocalizations early in life, exhibiting a strong dependence on hearing the adults they will imitate, as well as themselves as they practice, and a waning of this dependence as they mature. Innate predispositions for perceiving and learning the correct sounds exist in both groups, although more evidence of innate descriptions of species-specific signals exists in songbirds, where numerous species of vocal learners have been compared. Humans also share with songbirds an early phase of learning that is primarily perceptual, which then serves to guide later vocal production. Both humans and songbirds have evolved a complex hierarchy of specialized forebrain areas in which motor and auditory centers interact closely, and which control the lower vocal motor areas also found in nonlearners. In both these vocal learners, however, how auditory feedback of self is processed in these brain areas is surprisingly unclear. Finally, humans and songbirds have similar critical periods for vocal learning, with a much greater ability to learn early in life. In both groups, the capacity for late vocal learning may be decreased by the act of learning itself, as well as by biological factors such as the hormones of puberty. Although some features of birdsong and speech are clearly not analogous, such as the capacity of language for meaning, abstraction, and flexible associations, there are striking similarities in how sensory experience is internalized and used to shape vocal outputs, and how learning is enhanced during a critical period of development. Similar neural mechanisms may therefore be involved.

1,519 citations

01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: From the molecular level up to that of human consciousness, the contributions cover one of the most fascinating areas of science - the relationship between the structural and physiological mechanisms of the brain/nervous system.

1,512 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
05 Sep 2002-Nature
TL;DR: It is suggested that at each time in the RA sequence, the ensemble of active RA neurons is driven by a subpopulation of RA-projecting HVC neurons that is active only at that time, which eliminates the problem of temporal interference during sequence generation and learning attributed to more distributed representations.
Abstract: Sequences of motor activity are encoded in many vertebrate brains by complex spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity; however, the neural circuit mechanisms underlying the generation of these pre-motor patterns are poorly understood. In songbirds, one prominent site of pre-motor activity is the forebrain robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA), which generates stereotyped sequences of spike bursts during song and recapitulates these sequences during sleep. We show that the stereotyped sequences in RA are driven from nucleus HVC (high vocal centre), the principal pre-motor input to RA. Recordings of identified HVC neurons in sleeping and singing birds show that individual HVC neurons projecting onto RA neurons produce bursts sparsely, at a single, precise time during the RA sequence. These HVC neurons burst sequentially with respect to one another. We suggest that at each time in the RA sequence, the ensemble of active RA neurons is driven by a subpopulation of RA-projecting HVC neurons that is active only at that time. As a population, these HVC neurons may form an explicit representation of time in the sequence. Such a sparse representation, a temporal analogue of the 'grandmother cell' concept for object recognition, eliminates the problem of temporal interference during sequence generation and learning attributed to more distributed representations.

922 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
25 May 1984-Science
TL;DR: Lesions in the magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum of passerine birds disrupted song development in juvenile male zebra finches but did not affect maintenance of stable song patterns by adult birds.
Abstract: The magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum is a forebrain nucleus of passerine birds that accumulates testosterone and makes monosynaptic connections with other telencephalic nuclei that control song production in adult birds. Lesions in the magnocellular nucleus disrupted song development in juvenile male zebra finches but did not affect maintenance of stable song patterns by adult birds. These results represent an instance in which lesions of a discrete brain region during only a restricted phase in the development of a learned behavior cause permanent impairment. Because cells of the magnocellular nucleus accumulate androgens these findings raise the possibility that this learning is mediated by hormones.

834 citations


"A comparative study of the behavior..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Early LMAN-lesioned and early deafened juveniles As reported previously, lesions of LMAN or deafening in juvenile male zebra finches (Price, 1979; Bottjer et al., 1984) resulted in severe disturbance of song acquisition (Fig....

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  • ...In addition, the adult song developed by both types of birds differed in the number of notes included in the songsignificantly fewer for LMAN-lesioned birds (cf. Bottjer et al., 1984) than for Area X-lesioned birds, who had on average the same amount of notes in their repertoire as intact birds....

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  • ...This was true even when the lesion targeted on Area X also encroached on LMAN (cf. Bottjer et al., 1984)....

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  • ...Those birds were not discarded from the analysis since LMAN is not essential for song production in adult zebra finches (Bottjer et al., 1984)....

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  • ...Earlier reports have described the effects of early LMAN (Bottjer et al., 1984) and Area X (Sohrabji et al., 1990) lesions and of deafening (Price, 1979) on song development in the zebra finch....

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01 Jan 1969
TL;DR: In this paper, a root crop cleaning apparatus including a pair of adjacent, counterrotating cleaning rolls arranged in root crop receiving relation is described, one of the rolls being formed by a plurality of resilient disks mounted on a shaft and maintained at equal axial distances by means of smaller diameter spacers interposed between each adjacent pair of rotating disks.
Abstract: Root crop cleaning apparatus including a pair of adjacent, counterrotating cleaning rolls arranged in root crop receiving relation, one of the rolls being formed by a plurality of resilient disks mounted on a shaft and maintained at equal axial distances by means of smaller diameter spacers interposed between each adjacent pair of resilient disks, and the other roll being formed by a plurality of axially extending rods connected to a shaft at equal radial distances from the shaft and at equal circumferential distances from each other, the resilient disks on the one roll being yieldable axially and cooperable with the axially extending gaps between the rods on the other roll to permit rocks and other foreign objects to pass between the rolls without causing damage to the apparatus.

542 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

494 citations


"A comparative study of the behavior..." refers background or result in this paper

  • ...Deafening (Price, 1979) or lesions of LMAN (Bottjer et al....

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  • ...Section of syringeal nerves Both frequency modulation and temporal patterning are learned in intact song (Price, 1979)....

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  • ...It is, however, difficult to compare data from these two studies because Price (1979) pooled data from birds deafened between 16 and 43 d, and it is likely that deafening over such a wide range of ages produced more heterogeneous effects than the ones observed in our birds that were all deafened…...

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  • ...Both frequency modulation and temporal patterning are learned in intact song (Price, 1979)....

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  • ...…(17 out of 22) had patterns of frequency modulations similar to those found in subsong of intact animals, where sounds are noisier and frequency modulations are less well defined (cf. Price, 1979). and interval duration and duration variability values that differed from those of intact adult birds....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A stereotaxic atlas of the telencephalons, diencephalon and mesencephalon of the canary, Serinus canaria, was prepared for use in anatomical and behavioral experiments.
Abstract: A stereotaxic atlas of the telencephalon, diencephalon and mesencephalon of the canary, Serinus canaria, was prepared for use in anatomical and behavioral experiments. Canaries have a complex vocal and behavioral repertoire many of whose components are under hormonal control in the male, and are therefore useful for many physiological and anatomical experiments. They are available commercially, breed easily in captivity, are quite hardy and respond well to anesthetic and surgical procedures. The atlas consists of 30 frontal plates from the frontal pole to the level of the motor nucleus of the trigeminus. One sagittal plate is included for reference purposes. Six birds (three males and three females) with marking lesions were used to make the atlas. Their brains were embedded in albumin-gelatin media, cut at 50 and 25μ and stained with cresyl violet for cell bodies, Weil stain for myelinated fibers and the Fink-Schneider method for unmyelinated fibers. Plates were drawn from the cresyl violet series and labeled using all three stains. The completed atlas was tested for accuracy by making 12 small lesions in a number of predetermined discrete loci in several birds and evaluating their placement. Eleven of these lesions were found to be within the targeted structure. The results of this test, combined with the results of experiments in over 50 birds, have shown the atlas to be accurate in 80% of all cases.

450 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is reported here that lesioning Area X disrupts normal song development in juvenile birds, but does not affect the production of stereotyped song by adult birds, and the behavioral results suggest Area X is important for either the acquisition of a song model or the improvement of song through vocal practice.

431 citations