The role of stress and FoxP2 in adult vocal learning: tests using a parrot model

项目摘要：在美国，移民人口与普通人口相比存在显著的健康差异。移民患某些疾病和与压力有关的病症的比率较高，获得预防性保健和服务的比率较低。许多研究表明，成年移民缺乏英语能力是造成这些健康差异的主要因素。提高成年移民及其医疗保健提供者的语言学习率是减少这些差距的明显途径。然而，关于成人语言学习还有许多问题，特别是关于推动或抑制学习的社会力量，以及学习和生产背后的生理和神经机制。越来越多的证据表明，这些机制在成人中与在儿童中不同，但鸣禽，声乐学习的主要动物模型，通常不会表现出成年声乐学习。拟议的研究将发展虎皮鹦鹉，一种小鹦鹉，作为声音学习的替代动物模型。雌雄虎皮鹦鹉成年后都能学习发声，当它们从一个社会群体转移到另一个社会群体时，它们会很容易地融合成一种共同的群体特定的接触叫声。本项目将利用发声趋同作为成人发声学习的行为分析，在一系列的实验中测试i)社会环境和发声趋同对内分泌应激水平的影响，ii)操纵皮质酮（鸟类的主要应激激素）对幼鸟和成年鸟学习的影响，以及iii) FoxP2基因在幼鸟和成年鸟学习中的作用。第一个系列的实验将把个体从一个社会群体转移到另一个社会群体，并监测皮质酮水平，以测试特定群体发声功能的密码假说。第二组实验将改变青少年和成年阶段的皮质酮水平，以测试皮质酮对声乐学习的组织和激活作用。第三项研究将研究FoxP2的表达模式，FoxP2是一种与人类和鸣禽的声音学习有关的基因，在幼年和成年虎牙大脑的声音学习中心。总之，这些实验将提供关于成人声音学习过程的新颖和潜在的变革性见解，以及它与青少年学习的不同之处。该基金还将用于促进PI的专业发展，并加强少数民族服务机构的生物医学研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): PROJECT ABSTRACT In the United States, immigrant populations suffer significant health disparities relative to the general population. Immigrants experience higher rates of some diseases and stress-related conditions, and have lower rates of access to preventative care and services. Numerous studies have identified a lack of English-speaking abilities in adult immigrants as the primary factor driving these health disparities. Improving rates of language learning by adult immigrants and their health care providers are obvious routes to reducing these disparities. Yet there are many questions regarding adult language learning, particularly in regards to the social forces that drive or inhibit learning, and the physiological and neural mechanisms that underlie learning and production. There is increasing evidence that these mechanisms are different in adults than they are in children, but songbirds, the primary animal model for vocal learning, generally do not exhibit vocal learning as adults. The proposed studies would develop the budgerigar, a small parrot, as an alternative animal model for vocal learning. Budgerigars of both sexes are capable of vocal learning as adults and individuals will readily converge to a shared group-specific contact call when moved from one social group to another. This project will utilize this vocal convergence as a behavioral assay of adult vocal learning in a series of experiments designed to test i) the effects of social context and vocal convergence on endocrine stress levels, ii) the effects of manipulated corticosterone (the primary stress hormone in birds) on learning in juveniles and adults, and iii) the role of the gene FoxP2 in learning in juveniles and adults. The first series of experiments will move individuals from one social group to another and monitor corticosterone levels to test the password hypothesis for the function of group-specific vocalizations. The second series of experiments will alter corticosterone levels at both the juvenile and adult stage to test for organizational and activational effects of corticosterone on vocal learning. The third will examine expression patterns of FoxP2, a gene implicated in vocal learning in both humans and songbirds, in the vocal learning centers of the brains of juvenile and adult budgerigars. Together, these experiments will provide novel and potentially transformative insights regarding the vocal learning process in adults and how it differs from learning in juveniles. This SC1 funding will also contribute to the professional development of the PI and enhance biomedical research at a minority serving institution. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: PROJECT NARRATIVE Immigrants in the US experience health disparities that result from a lack of English-speaking abilities. This project will examine the effects of social context and stress in an animal model for adult vocal learning, the budgerigar. It will also investigate the physiological and genetic mechanisms that underlie adult vocal learning.