Mechanisms for behavioral release by audio-visual stimuli: Research on avian song system model

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During the last year of this project we examined the process of audio-visual integration by means of two strategies. First, we studied anatomical basis of audio-visual integration by means of gene expression. In zebra finches and Bengalese finches, males appear to females with dance and song. By presenting sound and images independently with a TFT video and a speaker, we examined the patterns of gene expression in the forebrain of the finches. After the stimulation brains were processed with immunocytochemistry.Results indicated that more gene expressions were observed in NCL when stimulated with vision alone, but with sound alone NCM and cHV had more gene expressions. With audio-visual compound stimuli, gene expression decrease in NCL, suggesting that audio-visual integration occurring at the level of NCL.Next we used operant discrimination training with audio-visual compound stimuli. Females and males differed in the way they integrate auditory and visual stimuli : males did integrated them while female mainly relied on visual information. This tendency was more pronounced when biological stimuli (i.e., sound and image of conspecific bird singing) than when artificial (i.e., pure tones, nose, and geometric figures) were used.In summary, while audio-visual stimuli are processed at the level of telencephalon at NCL, artificial and natural stimuli undergo different levels of processing.