The role of stress and FoxP2 in adult vocal learning: tests using a parrot model

压力和 FoxP2 在成人声音学习中的作用：使用鹦鹉模型进行测试

• 批准号: 8098926
• 负责人: TIMOTHY F WRIGHT
• 金额: $ 24.46万
• 依托单位: NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LAS CRUCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-06-25 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8098926
• 关键词: Adolescent; Adult; Animal Model; Area; Asthma; Automobile Driving; Behavioral; Behavioral Assay; Biomedical Research; Birds; Brain; Caring; Child; Childhood; Cognitive; Communication; Corticosterone; Dental Care; Development; Disease; Endocrine; Evolution; Exhibits; Family Psittacidae; Female; Funding; Future; Gene Expression; General Population; Genes; Genetic; HIV; Health; Health Personnel; Heart failure; Hormones; Human; Immigrant; Immigration; Immunization; Individual; Language; Language Development; Learning; Life; Malignant Neoplasms; Measures; Melopsittacus; Mental Health Services; Methodology; Minority-Serving Institution; Modeling; Monitor; Neuroanatomy; Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus; Obesity; Pattern; Perception; Physiological; Population; Process; Production; Productivity; Relative (related person); Role; Route; Series; Services; Sex Characteristics; Signal Transduction; Social Development; Social Environment; Songbirds; Staging; Stress; Testing; United States; Women' s Group; age effect; critical period; design; driving force; experience; fitness; health disparity; improved; insight; male; neuromechanism; novel; public health relevance; research and development; research study; response; sex; social; social group; social stress; tool; vocal learning; vocalization

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): PROJECT ABSTRACT In the United States, immigrant populations suffer significant health disparities relative to the general population. Immigrants experience higher rates of some diseases and stress-related conditions, and have lower rates of access to preventative care and services. Numerous studies have identified a lack of English-speaking abilities in adult immigrants as the primary factor driving these health disparities. Improving rates of language learning by adult immigrants and their health care providers are obvious routes to reducing these disparities. Yet there are many questions regarding adult language learning, particularly in regards to the social forces that drive or inhibit learning, and the physiological and neural mechanisms that underlie learning and production. There is increasing evidence that these mechanisms are different in adults than they are in children, but songbirds, the primary animal model for vocal learning, generally do not exhibit vocal learning as adults. The proposed studies would develop the budgerigar, a small parrot, as an alternative animal model for vocal learning. Budgerigars of both sexes are capable of vocal learning as adults and individuals will readily converge to a shared group-specific contact call when moved from one social group to another. This project will utilize this vocal convergence as a behavioral assay of adult vocal learning in a series of experiments designed to test i) the effects of social context and vocal convergence on endocrine stress levels, ii) the effects of manipulated corticosterone (the primary stress hormone in birds) on learning in juveniles and adults, and iii) the role of the gene FoxP2 in learning in juveniles and adults. The first series of experiments will move individuals from one social group to another and monitor corticosterone levels to test the password hypothesis for the function of group-specific vocalizations. The second series of experiments will alter corticosterone levels at both the juvenile and adult stage to test for organizational and activational effects of corticosterone on vocal learning. The third will examine expression patterns of FoxP2, a gene implicated in vocal learning in both humans and songbirds, in the vocal learning centers of the brains of juvenile and adult budgerigars. Together, these experiments will provide novel and potentially transformative insights regarding the vocal learning process in adults and how it differs from learning in juveniles. This SC1 funding will also contribute to the professional development of the PI and enhance biomedical research at a minority serving institution. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: PROJECT NARRATIVE Immigrants in the US experience health disparities that result from a lack of English-speaking abilities. This project will examine the effects of social context and stress in an animal model for adult vocal learning, the budgerigar. It will also investigate the physiological and genetic mechanisms that underlie adult vocal learning.

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国的项目摘要，移民人口相对于一般人群的健康差异很大。移民经历了一些疾病和与压力有关的疾病的率更高，并且获得预防保健和服务的率较低。许多研究都认为，成年移民缺乏英语能力是推动这些健康差异的主要因素。提高成年移民及其医疗保健提供者的语言学习率是降低这些差异的明显途径。然而，关于成人语言学习的问题有很多问题，尤其是关于驱动或抑制学习的社会力量以及学习和生产的生理和神经机制。越来越多的证据表明，成年人的这些机制与儿童不同，但是鸣禽是声音学习的主要动物模型，通常不会像成年人一样表现出声音学习。拟议的研究将发展Budgerigar，一种小鹦鹉，作为声音学习的替代动物模型。两性的budgerigars都可以进行声音学习，因为成年人和个人将在从一个社交群体转移到另一个社会群体时很容易汇聚到共享的集团特定联系电话中。该项目将在一系列旨在测试的实验中，将这种声音融合作为成人声乐学习的行为分析i）社交环境和声音收敛对内分泌压力水平的影响，ii）ii）操纵皮质酮（主要的鸟类的主要压力荷尔蒙）（鸟类中的主要压力荷尔蒙）对幼年和成人学习的影响，以及II II），以及II II）Gene Foxp and In in In of Gene foxp2 ins in n of Gene foxp。第一个系列实验将使个人从一个社会群体转移到另一个社会群体，并监测皮质酮水平，以测试密码假设，以了解组特定的发声功能。第二系列实验将在少年和成人阶段改变皮质酮水平，以测试皮质酮对声带学习的组织和活化作用。第三个将检查FOXP2的表达模式，FOXP2的表达模式，该基因与少年和成人budgerigars的大脑的人声学习中心有关。这些实验将共同提供有关成年人的声音学习过程及其与少年学习的新颖和潜在的变革性见解。 SC1资金还将有助于PI的专业发展，并在少数服务机构的生物医学研究中增强生物医学研究。 公共卫生相关性：美国的项目叙事移民经历了由于缺乏英语能力而导致的健康差异。该项目将研究社会环境和压力在动物模型中的成人声音学习Budgerigar的影响。它还将研究成人声音学习的基础的生理和遗传机制。