Neural Analysis of Vocal Learning

描述：(改编自申请者摘要)：本项目的长期目标 研究是为了了解学习和记忆的神经基础，特别是 大脑如何在感官信息的引导下学习复杂的运动行为。 鸣禽的发声学习为此目的提供了一个有用的模型系统， 与人类语音学习特别相关。鸣禽学会产生一种 《感觉运动》时期背诵的一首辅导歌曲 学习，他们使用自己声音的听觉反馈来提炼 他们的声音输出，直到它与所记忆的歌曲匹配。在这里提出的工作 重点放在大脑系统中专门负责歌曲的区域的特定部分 学习和生产，一种特殊的皮质-基底节回路，称为 前脑前通路(AFP)，因为它起着至关重要的作用 在歌曲学习和成人发声可塑性中的作用尚不清楚。 此外，皮质-基底节环路保存良好 在进化上，被认为在运动和强化学习中起作用 许多脊椎动物，并成为许多功能障碍的关键部位 神经精神障碍。因为鸣鸟法新社是一个离散的 控制特定行为的皮质-基底节回路，它可能证明 用于阐明非常一般的功能的特别易操作的系统 这种途径，无论是在正常情况下还是在疾病中。 这款应用程序在学习过程中开发对歌曲的选择性听觉反应，并显示 歌唱过程中的运动相关活动，但这些感觉和运动 目前还不清楚这些回应是否相互关联。这条赛道的活动也是 每一次审判都有很大的变数，提出了一个问题，那就是它如何 可靠地对信息或导游歌曲进行编码。具有来自以下位置的同步录制 在两种歌唱过程中，APP LMAN输出核团中的多个神经元 和歌曲回放，第一个目标将测试应用程序编码的假设 以分发的形式提供与歌曲和唱歌有关的信息 “人口”代码。进一步的假设是APP神经的特定模式 活动对正常的歌曲发展至关重要，可能会引导 声带运动核RA内神经联系的形成。这将会被测试 通过同时记录LMAN和RA中的神经元，因此 它们活动的协方差以及它与声音输出的关系可以是 分析过了。LMAN-RA相互作用将首先在正常鸟类中进行研究， 学习的不同阶段，然后在AFP活动中断后 模式，其方式将揭示脑内正常的突触处理 这个应用程序，以及这个电路如何影响歌曲的运动路径。

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The long-term goal of this research is to understand the neural basis of learning and memory, especially how the brain learns complex motor behaviors, guided by sensory information. Vocal learning in songbirds provides a useful model system for this purpose, with special relevance to human speech learning. Songbirds learn to produce a copy of a previously memorized tutor song during a period of "sensorimotor" learning, in which they use auditory feedback of their own voice to refine their vocal output until it matches the memorized song. The work proposed here focuses on a particular part of the system of brain areas devoted to song learning and production, a specialized cortical-basal ganglia circuit known as the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), because it plays a crucial but ill-understood role both in song learning and in adult vocal plasticity. Moreover, cortical-basal ganglia circuits, which are well conserved evolutionarily, are thought to function in motor and reinforcement learning in many vertebrates, and to be a critical site of dysfunction in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Because the songbird AFP is a discrete cortical-basal ganglia circuit controlling a specific behavior, it may prove a particularly tractable system for elucidating the very general functions of such pathways, both normally and in disease. The APP develops song-selective auditory responses during learning, and shows motor-related activity during singing, but how these sensory and motor responses relate to each other is not clear. Activity in this circuit is also very variable from trial to trial, raising the question of how it could reliably encode information or guide song. With simultaneous recordings from multiple neurons in the output nucleus of the APP, LMAN, during both singing and song playback, the first aim will test the hypothesis that the APP encodes relevant song- and singing-related information in the form of a distributed "population" code. A further hypothesis is that specific patterns of APP neural activity are critical for normal song development, perhaps guiding the formation of connections in the vocal motor nucleus RA. This will be tested with simultaneous recordings of neurons in both LMAN and RA, so that the covariance of their activity and how it relates to vocal output can be analyzed. LMAN-RA interactions will be studied first in normal birds at different stages of learning, and then after disruptions of the AFP activity pattern, in ways that will shed light both on normal synaptic processing within the APP, as well as on how this circuit influences the song motor pathway.