Neural Analysis of Vocal Learning

声乐学习的神经分析

• 批准号: 6770202
• 负责人: Allison Jane Doupe
• 金额: $ 33.19万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-07-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6770202
• 关键词: animal communication behavior; auditory feedback; auditory stimulus; basal ganglia; behavioral /social science research tag; biological models; catheterization; cell population study; central neural pathway /tract; developmental neurobiology; electroencephalography; electrophysiology; language development; memory; microelectrodes; neural information processing; neural plasticity; neural transmission; neuroanatomy; neuropharmacologic agent; psychomotor function; sensorimotor system; songbirds; statistics /biometry; verbal learning; vocalization

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The long-term goal of this research is to understand the neural basis of learning and memory, especially how the brain learns complex motor behaviors, guided by sensory information. Vocal learning in songbirds provides a useful model system for this purpose, with special relevance to human speech learning. Songbirds learn to produce a copy of a previously memorized tutor song during a period of "sensorimotor" learning, in which they use auditory feedback of their own voice to refine their vocal output until it matches the memorized song. The work proposed here focuses on a particular part of the system of brain areas devoted to song learning and production, a specialized cortical-basal ganglia circuit known as the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), because it plays a crucial but ill-understood role both in song learning and in adult vocal plasticity. Moreover, cortical-basal ganglia circuits, which are well conserved evolutionarily, are thought to function in motor and reinforcement learning in many vertebrates, and to be a critical site of dysfunction in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Because the songbird AFP is a discrete cortical-basal ganglia circuit controlling a specific behavior, it may prove a particularly tractable system for elucidating the very general functions of such pathways, both normally and in disease. The APP develops song-selective auditory responses during learning, and shows motor-related activity during singing, but how these sensory and motor responses relate to each other is not clear. Activity in this circuit is also very variable from trial to trial, raising the question of how it could reliably encode information or guide song. With simultaneous recordings from multiple neurons in the output nucleus of the APP, LMAN, during both singing and song playback, the first aim will test the hypothesis that the APP encodes relevant song- and singing-related information in the form of a distributed "population" code. A further hypothesis is that specific patterns of APP neural activity are critical for normal song development, perhaps guiding the formation of connections in the vocal motor nucleus RA. This will be tested with simultaneous recordings of neurons in both LMAN and RA, so that the covariance of their activity and how it relates to vocal output can be analyzed. LMAN-RA interactions will be studied first in normal birds at different stages of learning, and then after disruptions of the AFP activity pattern, in ways that will shed light both on normal synaptic processing within the APP, as well as on how this circuit influences the song motor pathway.

描述：（根据申请人的摘要进行了改编）：此的长期目标 研究是了解学习和记忆的神经基础，尤其是 大脑如何在感官信息的指导下学习复杂的运动行为。 鸣禽中的声带学习为此目的提供了有用的模型系统， 与人类言语学习特别相关。鸣禽学会生产 在“感觉运动”时期的先前记忆的老师歌曲的副本 学习，他们使用自己声音的听觉反馈来完善 他们的声音输出与记忆的歌曲相匹配。这里提出的工作 专注于专门用于歌曲的大脑区域系统的特定部分 学习与生产，一种专门的皮质基层神经节电路 前脑途径（AFP），因为它起着至关重要的 在歌曲学习和成人声音可塑性中的角色不佳。 此外，皮质基质神经节电路，保守良好 从进化上讲，被认为在运动和增强学习中起作用 许多脊椎动物，并成为许多脊椎动物的关键部位 神经精神疾病。因为鸣禽的法新社是离散的 控制特定行为的皮质基碱神经节电路，这可能证明是 特别是可阐明非常通用功能的系统 这种途径正常和疾病。 该应用程序在学习过程中开发歌曲选择性的听觉响应，并显示 唱歌过程中与运动相关的活动，但是这些感觉和电动机如何 彼此之间的响应尚不清楚。该电路中的活动也是 从试验到试验的变化很大，提出了一个问题的问题 可靠地编码信息或指南歌曲。同时录音 在两个唱歌过程中，应用程序lman的输出核中的多个神经元 和歌曲播放，第一个目标将测试应用程序编码的假设 相关的歌曲和与唱歌相关的信息以分布式的形式 “人口”代码。另一个假设是应用神经的特定模式 活动对于正常的歌曲发展至关重要，也许是指导 声音运动核中连接的形成。这将进行测试 同时在Lman和RA中录制了神经元，以便 他们的活动的协方差及其与人声输出的关系 分析。 Lman-Ra互动将首先在普通鸟类中进行研究 学习的不同阶段，然后在AFP活动中断之后 模式，以将正常突触处理的方式阐明 该应用程序以及该电路如何影响歌曲电动通路。