Neural Basis of Song Perception in birds

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目标是更好地理解鸣叫控制系统在成年鸣禽对同鸣声的感知中的作用。鸣禽不仅要学会唱歌，还要学会基于听觉交流来识别同种个体。先前的研究已经证实，鸣叫控制系统中某些区域的损伤会改变鸟类区分熟悉鸣叫的能力。此外，分子技术已被用于将听觉体验与歌曲控制系统神经元内的蛋白质磷酸化联系起来。该实验将研究鸣禽处理听觉信息和形成长期记忆的机制和结构。我们将测试三个假设：(1)CREB的磷酸化是形成新的听觉记忆所必需的，(2)前脑通路是识别熟悉的歌曲所必需的，(3)新纹状体核HVc是感知同类型歌曲所必需的。我将通过模拟野生鸣禽在繁殖季节保卫领地时的社会互动，在野生鸣禽身上验证假设(1)和(2)。假设(3)将在实验室中用金丝雀进行操作性条件反射任务测试。这些研究将增加我们对鸣禽感知和学习识别同种鸣禽的方式的了解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this proposal is to better understand the role of the song control system in the perception of conspecific song in adult songbirds. Songbirds must not only learn to produce songs, but also learn to recognize conspecific individuals based on auditory communication. Previous research has established that lesions to areas within the song control system alter a bird's ability to make discriminations between familiar songs. Also, molecular techniques have been used to correlate auditory experience with protein phosphorylation within neurons of the song control system. The proposed experiments will investigate both the mechanisms and structures necessary for songbirds to process auditory information and form long term memories. Three hypotheses will be tested: (1) the phosphorylation of CREB is necessary in the formation of new auditory memories, (2) the anterior forebrain pathway is necessary for the recognition of familiar songs, and (3) the neostriatal nucleus HVc is necessary for the perception of conspecific song. I will test hypotheses (1) and (2) in wild song sparrows by simulating social interactions that the birds have when defending their territories during the breeding season. Hypothesis (3) will be tested with canaries in the laboratory using an operant conditioning task. These studies will increase our knowledge of the way in which songbirds perceive and learn to recognize the songs of conspecifics.