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Increasing stereotypy in adult zebra finch song correlates with a declining rate of adult neurogenesis
Author(s) -
Pytte Carolyn L.,
Gerson Miles,
Miller Janet,
Kirn John R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
developmental neurobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.716
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1932-846X
pISSN - 1932-8451
DOI - 10.1002/dneu.20520
Subject(s) - zebra finch , neurogenesis , stereotypy , songbird , biology , neuroscience , syllable , hippocampus , adult male , dentate gyrus , singing , ecology , speech recognition , computer science , amphetamine , dopamine , endocrinology , management , economics
Abstract Adult neurogenesis is often correlated with learning new tasks, suggesting that a function of incorporating new neurons is to permit new memory formation. However, in the zebra finch, neurons are added to the song motor pathway throughout life, long after the initial song motor pattern is acquired by about 3 months of age. To explore this paradox, we examined the relationship between adult song structure and neuron addition using sensitive measures of song acoustic structure. We report that between 4 and 15 months of age there was an increase in the stereotypy of fine‐grained spectral and temporal features of syllable acoustic structure. These results indicate that the zebra finch continues to refine motor output, perhaps by practice, over a protracted period beyond the time when song is first learned. Over the same age range, there was a decrease in the addition of new neurons to HVC, a region necessary for song production, but not to Area X or the hippocampus, regions not essential for singing. We propose that age‐related changes in the stereotypy of syllable acoustic structure and HVC neuron addition are functionally related. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007.