Rudimentary substrates for vocal learning in a suboscine.

Liu, Wan-chun

Wada, Kazuhiro

Jarvis, Erich D

Nottebohm, Fernando

England

2015-12-18T04:53:52Z

2013

Vocal learning has evolved in only a few groups of mammals and birds. The key neuroanatomical and behavioural links bridging vocal learners and non-learners are still unknown. Here we show that a non-vocal-learning suboscine, the eastern phoebe, expresses neural and behavioural substrates that are associated with vocal learning in closely related oscine songbirds. In phoebes, a specialized forebrain region in the intermediate arcopallium seems homologous to the oscine song nucleus RA (robust nucleus of arcopallium) by its neural connections, expression of glutamate receptors and singing-dependent immediate-early gene expression. Lesion of this RA-like region induces subtle but consistent song changes. Moreover, the unlearned phoebe song unexpectedly develops through a protracted ontogeny. These features provide the first evidence of forebrain vocal-motor control in suboscines, which has not been encountered in other avian non-vocal-learners, and offer a potential configuration of brain and behaviour from which vocal learning might have evolved.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23823977

ncomms3082

2041-1723

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11205

eng

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Nat Commun

10.1038/ncomms3082

Animals

Avian Proteins

Gene Expression Regulation

Learning

Male

Nerve Tissue Proteins

Passeriformes

Phylogeny

Prosencephalon

Receptors, AMPA

Receptors, Kainic Acid

Transcription Factors

Vocalization, Animal

Rudimentary substrates for vocal learning in a suboscine.

Journal article

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23823977

2082

Basic Science Departments

Duke

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Neurobiology

School of Medicine

University Institutes and Centers

Published

4