CELL SURVIVAL IN A NEURAL CIRCUIT FOR LEARNING

描述(摘自申请者的摘要)：鸣禽是 除了人类以外，很少有物种会学习他们物种使用的声音 在出生后发育的敏感期进行交流。不像 然而，在人类中，两性都学习和使用语音交流，在许多情况下 只有雄性鸣鸟才能学会唱歌。一个引人注目的后果是 这种行为的性别差异是大脑中负责控制歌曲的区域 雄性突出，雌性缩小(或不存在)。在……里面 斑马雀，一种常见的鸣禽，有一些发声控制区 最初在男性和女性中以一种单态的方式发育。然而， 在歌曲学习的青少年阶段，这些区域表现出广泛的 女性的神经退行性变，而男性的歌区显示出生长 几乎没有神经元死亡。是什么因素决定了这些戏剧性的 形态事件？ 令人惊讶的是，性激素似乎不会直接作用于歌曲系统 影响神经的命运。拟议的研究集中在这样的假设上 宋代制度的发展可能会受到这些成员的影响 神经营养因子家族，被认为是调节细胞-细胞信号分子 多种脊椎动物的神经元存活和脑发育 物种，包括人类。这项研究将扩大知识库 关于神经营养因子在调节神经元存活中的作用 大脑的分化和习得发声行为的发展。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): Songbirds are one of the few species other than humans that learn the sounds used by their species to communicate during a sensitive period of postnatal development. Unlike humans, however, where both sexes learn and use vocal communication, in many species of songbird only males learn to sing. A striking consequence of this behavioral sex differences is that the brain regions for song control are prominent in males and diminished in size (or absent) in females. In the zebra finch, a commonly studied songbird, some vocal control regions initially develop in a monomorphic fashion in males and females. However, during the juvenile phase of song learning these regions show extensive neurodegeneration in females, while song regions in males display growth with little neuron death. What factors regulate these dramatic morphological events? Surprisingly, sex steroids appear not to act directly on the song system to influence neural fate. The proposed research focuses on the hypothesis that the development of the song system may be influenced by members of the neurotrophin family, cell-cell signaling molecules thought to regulate neuron survival and brain development in a wide variety of vertebrate species, including humans. The research will expand the knowledge base about the role of neurotrophins in regulating neuron survival, the sexual differentiation of the brain, and the development of learned vocal behavior.