Memory in the making: localized brain activation related to song learning in young songbirds
Memory in the making: localized brain activation related to song learning in young songbirds
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2010.0870
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发表时间：
2010-11-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Bolhuis, Johan J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gobes, Sharon M. H.;Zandbergen, Matthijs A.;Bolhuis, Johan J.
雄性鸣禽在生命早期就从成年“导师”那里学习唱歌，就像人类婴儿学习说话一样。与人类类似，鸣禽的大脑中也有独立的神经基质用于发声和听觉记忆。在成年鸣禽中，尾部大脑皮层（相当于鸟类的听觉关联皮层）被认为包含指导鸣叫记忆的神经基质，而鸣叫系统则参与鸣叫产生和感觉运动学习。如果这个假设是正确的，那么当幼鸟听到导师的歌声时，尾部大脑皮层中应该有神经元激活，而不是鸣叫系统中。我们发现，在学习唱歌的幼年斑胸草雀雄性的尾部大脑皮层中，歌曲诱导的分子神经元激活增加，以立即早期基因的表达进行测量。歌曲系统中没有发现这样的激活。尾内侧巢状皮质（NCM）内侧部分的分子神经元激活对导师歌曲的反应显着大于对新歌或沉默的反应。在尾内侧中皮层中，对导师歌曲的反应比对沉默的反应显着更大的分子神经元激活。此外，在 NCM 中，自发分子神经元激活与睡眠期间学习歌曲的强度之间存在显着的正相关。这些结果表明，尾部大脑皮层含有导师歌曲记忆的神经基质，当幼鸟学习歌曲的过程中，该神经基质在睡眠期间被激活。这些发现提供了对指导发声学习的听觉记忆形成的深入了解，这是人类语音习得的基础过程。
Songbird males learn to sing their songs from an adult 'tutor' early in life, much like human infants learn to speak. Similar to humans, in the songbird brain there are separate neural substrates for vocal production and for auditory memory. In adult songbirds, the caudal pallium, the avian equivalent of the auditory association cortex, has been proposed to contain the neural substrate of tutor song memory, while the song system is involved in song production as well as sensorimotor learning. If this hypothesis is correct, there should be neuronal activation in the caudal pallium, and not in the song system, while the young bird is hearing the tutor song. We found increased song-induced molecular neuronal activation, measured as the expression of an immediate early gene, in the caudal pallium of juvenile zebra finch males that were in the process of learning to sing their songs. No such activation was found in the song system. Molecular neuronal activation was significantly greater in response to tutor song than to novel song or silence in the medial part of the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). In the caudomedial mesopallium, there was significantly greater molecular neuronal activation in response to tutor song than to silence. In addition, in the NCM there was a significant positive correlation between spontaneous molecular neuronal activation and the strength of song learning during sleep. These results suggest that the caudal pallium contains the neural substrate for tutor song memory, which is activated during sleep when the young bird is in the process of learning its song. The findings provide insight into the formation of auditory memories that guide vocal production learning, a process fundamental for human speech acquisition.