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From songs to synapses: Molecular mechanisms of birdsong memory
Author(s) -
Moorman Sanne,
Mello Claudio V.,
Bolhuis Johan J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.201000150
Subject(s) - zebra finch , songbird , neuroscience , neural substrate , biology , echoic memory , synapsin , cognition , genetics , membrane , synaptic vesicle , paleontology , vesicle
There are remarkable behavioral, neural, and genetic similarities between the way songbirds learn to sing and human infants learn to speak. Furthermore, the brain regions involved in birdsong learning, perception, and production have been identified and characterized in detail. In particular, the caudal medial nidopallium (the avian analog of the mammalian auditory‐association cortex) has been found to contain the neural substrate of auditory memory, paving the way for analyses of the underlying molecular mechanisms. Recently, the zebra finch genome was sequenced, and annotated cDNA databases representing over 15,000 unique brain‐expressed genes are available, enabling high‐throughput gene expression analyses. Here we review the involvement of immediate early genes (e.g. zenk and arc ), their downstream targets (e.g. synapsins), and their regulatory signaling pathways (e.g. MAPK/ERK) in songbird memory. We propose that in‐depth investigations of zenk ‐ and ERK‐dependent cascades will help to further unravel the molecular basis of auditory memory.