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Neural Mechanisms of Vocal Sequence Generation in the Songbird
Author(s) -
FEE MICHALE S.,
KOZHEVNIKOV ALEXAY A.,
HAHNLOSER RICHARD H.R.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1298.022
Subject(s) - songbird , singing , neuroscience , vocal learning , biological neural network , representation (politics) , nucleus , computer science , biology , communication , psychology , physics , paleontology , politics , political science , acoustics , law
A bstract : Little is known about the biophysical and neuronal circuit mechanisms underlying the generation and learning of behavioral sequences. Songbirds provide a marvelous animal model in which to study these phenomena. By use of a motorized microdrive to record the activity of single neurons in the singing bird, we are beginning to understand the circuits that generate complex vocal sequences. We describe recent experiments elucidating the role of premotor song‐control nucleus HVC in the production of song. We find that HVC neurons projecting to premotor nucleus RA each generate a single burst of spikes at a particular time in the song and may form a sparse representation of temporal order. We incorporate this observation into a working hypothesis for the generation of vocal sequences in the songbird, and examine some implications for song learning.