Reinforcement Mechanisms for Learning Vocal Behaviors - Renewal - 1

项目总结 像言语和语言这样的熟练行为是如何在一生中积极保持的，目前还不清楚 而且研究仍然很少。我们的研究项目使用鸣禽发声学习和发声来理解 前脑回路和强化机制是如何被用来获得和维持学习的 发声。我们的研究帮助证明了中脑多巴胺能回路双向引导 以与作为奖励预测误差信号的方式一致的方式学习歌曲中的变化 钢筋模型所设想的。在此基础上，我们将注意力转向了解基底节是如何 而多巴胺能回路支持行为的终生维持。我们假设这一预测 多巴胺能信号保障自然行为的终生维持。我们的初步研究提供了一个 一瞥足以启动之前学到的和之前学到的 内在强化的自然行为。使用我们针对其进行了优化的各种尖端方法 在鸣禽中的电路询问，我们的目标是剖析与鸣叫相关的细胞和突触机制 去结晶化，以及多巴胺能通路下游的电路节点在歌曲维持和恢复中的作用 宋氏去结晶。在第一个目标中，我们将测试预测性多巴胺能信号在长期内的作用 利用光遗传操作和多巴胺功能成像维持成年斑雀鸣叫 成年动物的活动。在第二个目标中，我们将研究歌曲的细胞和突触机制。 去结晶作用。在第三个目标中，我们将测试苍白球-丘脑回路在多巴胺能下游的作用。 纹状体通路在宋氏去结晶化的实施和挽救中的作用。总而言之，这些研究可以提供 对大脑如何持续监控和更新行为以维持 专家的表现，并揭示当这一过程出错时会发生什么。

PROJECT SUMMARY How skilled behaviors like speech and language are actively maintained throughout life is not well understood and still poorly studied. Our research program uses songbird vocal learning and vocal production to understand how forebrain circuits and reinforcement mechanisms are used to acquire and then maintain learned vocalizations. Our research has helped demonstrate that midbrain dopaminergic circuits bidirectionally guide learned changes in song in a manner consistent with them functioning as reward prediction error signals envisaged by reinforcement models. Building from this, we turn our attention to understand how the basal ganglia and dopaminergic circuits support the lifelong maintenance of behavior. We hypothesize that predictive dopaminergic signals safeguard the lifelong maintenance of natural behaviors. Our initial studies provide a glimpse at central mechanisms sufficient to initiate the long term decrystallization of a previously learned and internally reinforced natural behavior. Using a variety of cutting-edge approaches that we have optimized for circuit interrogation in songbirds, we aim to dissect the cellular and synaptic mechanisms associated with song decrystallization, and the role of circuit nodes downstream of dopaminergic pathways in song maintenance and song decrystallization. In the first aim we will test the role of predictive dopaminergic signals in the long-term maintenance of adult zebra finch song using optogenetic manipulations and functional imaging of dopamine activity in adult animals. In the second aim we will examine the cellular and synaptic mechanisms of song decrystallization. In the third aim we will test the role of pallidal-thalamic circuits downstream of dopaminergic striatal pathways in the implementation and rescue of song decrystallization. Together, these studies can provide fundamental and mechanistic insights into how the brain continuously monitors and updates behavior to maintain expert performance and reveal what happens when this process goes awry.