Neural Bases of Song Preference and Reproductive Behavior in a Female Songbird

几十年来，神经科学家和进化生物学家一直对鸣禽“歌唱系统”的机制和功能感兴趣：连接大脑中高阶听觉区域和脑干中驱动行为的运动回路的相互连接的神经回路。这项工作主要集中在歌曲系统如何让雄性鸣禽学习和产生歌曲。这种回路在雌性鸣禽中的作用，因为它们不唱歌，在很大程度上被忽视了。而不是作为一个电路，产生声乐行为，这项工作调查的假设，即“歌曲系统”在女性的组织偏好男性的歌曲，并指导他们的行为反应的歌曲的形式交配招标显示，确保物种的生存。该项目利用棕头燕八哥交配行为的鲁棒性、选择性和社会可塑性，研究歌曲系统如何将感官刺激（歌曲）转化为控制姿势反应的运动命令。该项目还为本科生和研究生提供跨学科研究的机会，包括针对小学生的科学教育活动以及针对高中生的神经科学综合暑期课程。拟议的工作整合了不同的科学领域，包括神经科学，行为和工程，以提供独特的见解控制行为的神经回路的进化。在第一个目标中，研究人员使用经典的路径跟踪技术和最近开发的跨突触示踪剂（水泡性口炎病毒）的组合来映射前脑到在交配请求显示（CSD）过程中激活的单个肌肉群的连接。在第二个目标中，研究人员记录了雌性燕八哥在产生CSD期间前脑歌曲控制核团HVC和RA的神经活动，以量化控制这种高度选择性行为的前脑运动命令的性质。为了评估记录的神经活动模式和行为之间的关系，我们将使用计算机视觉方法来量化交配行为。在该提案的最终目标中，研究人员在CSD产生的背景下记录了高阶听觉前脑区（NCM，NIf，CM）对歌曲的神经反应。这些实验用来验证这样一个假设，即这些前脑区域（已知有向歌曲控制核团的投射）编码歌曲效价，并在歌曲质量和雌性行为反应之间提供直接联系。神经和行为数据将在专门用于Song Bird Science的公共网站上提供。

For many decades, neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists have been interested in the mechanics and function of the songbird's "song system": the interconnected neural circuit that connects the higher-order auditory areas in the brain with the motor circuits in the brainstem that drive behavior. This work predominantly has focused on how the song system allows male songbirds to learn and produce song. The role of this circuit in female songbirds, which do not sing, has largely been ignored. Rather than acting as a circuit that generates vocal behavior, this work investigates the hypothesis that the "song system" in females serves to organize preferences for males' songs and guides their behavioral reactions to song in the form of a copulation solicitation display that ensures survival of the species. The project capitalize on the robustness, selectivity, and social malleability of the copulatory behavior in the brown-headed cowbird, to investigate how the song system transforms a sensory stimulus (the song) into a motor command that controls a postural response. The project also provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to engage in interdisciplinary research, and it includes science education activities aimed at elementary school children as well as a comprehensive summer course in neuroscience for high school students.The proposed work integrates disparate fields of science, including neuroscience, behavior, and engineering to provide unique insight into the evolution of neural circuits that control behavior. In the first aim, the investigators use a combination of classic pathway tracing techniques and recently developed transsynaptic tracer (vesicular stomatitis virus) to map the connectivity from the forebrain to the individual muscle groups that are activated during the production of a copulation solicitation display (CSD). In the second aim, the investigators record neural activity in forebrain song control nuclei HVC and RA during the production of CSD in female cowbirds to quantify the nature of the forebrain motor commands that control this highly selective sexual behavior. To evaluate the relationship between recorded neural activity patterns and the behavior, we will use a computer vision approach to quantify the copulatory behavior. In the final aim of the proposal, the investigators record neural responses to song in higher-order auditory forebrain areas (NCM, NIf, CM) within the context of CSD production. These experiments serve to test the hypothesis that these forebrain areas, which have known projections to song control nuclei, encode song valence and provide a direct link between song quality and the females' behavioral response. The neural and behavioral data will be made available at public internet site dedicated to Song Bird Science.