Temperature manipulation in songbird brain implicates the premotor nucleus HVC in birdsong syntax

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1501.06108
• Publication Date: 2015-01-01
• Authors: Yisi Zhang; Jason D. Wittenbach; Dezhe Z. Jin; Alexay A. Kozhevn...
• Keywords: Songbird; Auditory feedback; Vocal Learning

Behavioral sequences of animals are often structured and can be described by probabilistic rules (or "action syntax"). The patterns vocal elements in birdsong a prime example. encoding such neural circuits is poorly understood. Here we locate the site song syntax Bengalese finch rapidly reversibly manipulating temperature production pathway. Changing premotor nucleus HVC (proper name) alters transition probabilities between syllables. Most prominently, cooling reduces number repetitions long repeated syllables, while heating increases repetition. In contrast, changing downstream motor area RA (robust acropallium), which critical for singing, does not affect syntax. Computational modeling suggests that alter affecting efficacy synapses carry auditory feedback to circuits. model supported real-time distorted experiment, shows perturbing shortens syllable repeats similar HVC. Taken together, these findings implicate as key player determining