Neural and behavioral mechanisms of song learning in zebra finches

项目摘要 我们的许多最令人印象深刻的技能，例如那些支持极端运动天赋或精确音乐的技能 表情，都是通过模仿老师熟练的表演来学习的。成功地模仿一位导师、一名学生 必须产生一系列的行为，对照导师的例子对它们进行评估，然后加强这些行为 类似于这个例子。所生成的行为通常是高度精心设计的，并且没有任何 比较的来源，而不是学生的内部模板。因此，模仿学习密切依赖于 在没有任何外在奖励的情况下，学生评估和加强自身表现的能力 指示。支持模仿学习的大脑机制仍然知之甚少，尽管它是很好的 众所周知，基底节(BG)在经典形式的强化学习中起着核心作用。英国天然气公司如何 评估和加强在模仿学习过程中的行为变量仍然不确定。在我的 研究I将描述BG中的神经活动、行为探索、 以及在模仿学习中的强化。我的具体目标是：1)模范模仿学习 鸣禽探索歌声中的亚音节结构的过程。2)联合建模声音变异性和 歌曲学习过程中的脑电活动。目标1将促进我们对行为机制的理解 发声学习并开发用于理解复杂学习过程的计算框架，同时 目标2将BG中的神经变异性与这些学习过程中的声音变异性联系起来。这些分析 我在这项提案中创建的模型将为斑马雀的歌曲学习过程提供深入的见解 并为研究复杂的技能学习创建一个更通用的框架。我将在以下条件下进行这项研究 约翰·皮尔森博士和理查德·穆尼博士的监督，这是一个由成就卓著的跨学科导师组成的团队， 互补的技能组合。他们的合作已经被证明是卓有成效的。我会与各位议员紧密合作。 来磨练我们的科学问题，改进我们的实验设计，并发展我们的分析。 在这样做的过程中，我将建立一套平衡的理论和实验技能。我带着深深的激情 除了具备行为学方面的专业知识外，还需要了解行为和神经层面的复杂行为 和计算方法。我从这项提议中获得的经验将使我成为一个有竞争力的 独立调查员，加速我朝着在一所大学获得教员职位的长期目标前进 研究所。

Project Summary Many of our most impressive skills, such as those supporting extreme athletic talent or precise musical expression, are learned by imitating the skilled performance of a tutor. To successfully imitate a tutor, a pupil must generate a range of behaviors, evaluate them relative to an example of the tutor, and then reinforce those that are similar to that example. The generated behaviors are often highly elaborate and produced without any source of comparison other than the pupil's internal template. As such, imitative learning depends intimately on the pupil's ability to evaluate and reinforce its own performance in the absence of any extrinsic reward or instruction. The brain mechanisms that support imitative learning remain poorly understood, although it is well known that the basal ganglia (BG) play a central role in classical forms of reinforcement learning. How the BG evaluates and reinforces behavioral variants over the course of imitative learning remains uncertain. In my research I will characterize the relationship between neural activity in the BG, behavioral exploration, and reinforcement during imitative learning. My Specific Aims are: 1) To model the imitative learning process by which songbirds explore subsyllabic structure within song. 2) To jointly model vocal variability and BG circuit activity during song learning. Aim 1 will advance our understanding of the behavioral mechanisms of vocal learning and develop computational frameworks for understanding complex learning processes, while Aim 2 will relate neural variability in the BG to vocal variability during these learning processes. The analyses and models I create in this proposal will both provide insight into the song learning process in zebra finches and create a more general framework for studying complex skill learning. I will conduct this research under the supervision of Drs. John Pearson and Richard Mooney, a team of accomplished, interdisciplinary mentors with complementary skillsets. Their collaboration has already proven to be fruitful. I will work closely with members of the Mooney lab to hone our scientific questions, refine our experimental design, and develop our analyses. In doing so I will build a balanced set of theoretical and experimental skills. I bring a deep passion for understanding complex behavior on both behavioral and neural scales, in addition to expertise in behavioral and computational methods. The experience I gain from this proposal will make me a competitive and independent investigator, accelerating me towards my long-term goal of obtaining a faculty position at a research institute.