L11 Birdsong P1

Question 1

3 studied birds in birdsong

Answer 1

canary, white-crowned sparrow, zebrafinch (most studied)

Question 2

different developmental stages of song?

Answer 2

Subsong - young birds produce rambling sounds variable in timing and pattern

Plastic - discrete clusters. aspects of temporal patterning of adult song detectable. first evidence of imitation and characterisation of adult-specific song. also rehearsal

Crystallised - full song expressed with normal variations in volume, duration, syllabic structure etc..

Question 3

Different phases of song?

Answer 3

Critical/sensitive period = requires auditory experience

Sensory phase = birds must hear normal species song from other adult males, memorised but not sung

Sensorimotor phase = vocal practice that includes subsong and plastic stages

Question 4

Timelines for birds’ song learning

Answer 4

Seasonal closed learner - Sparrows
Age-limited learner - Zebra finches, short song learning and production phases. also quickest
Seasonal Open-Ended learner - Canaries

Question 5

Song structure?

Answer 5

notes/elements = continuous mark on the spectogram. Simple continuous narrow frequency band/complex frequency and amplitude

Syllables = clusters of two or more notes

Phrase = groups of two or more syllables or a series of single notes/syllables

Syntax = specific timing and ordering of notes/syllables/phrases

Question 6

which phase is a tutor required in?

Answer 6

Sensory phase needs tutor
Rehearsal phase does NOT

Question 7

microdialect

Answer 7

young male rejects father and learns from male near his future breeding location

Question 8

Song production nuclei

Answer 8

HVc, RA, nXIIts

Question 9

song learning (anterior forebrain pathway)

Answer 9

Area X, DLM, LMAN

Question 10

neural substrates of song learning

Answer 10

Higher auditory circuit (HVc, L, Nlf)
Anterior forebrain pathway/song development nuclei (LMAN, Area X, DLM)
Motor pathway/song production nuclei (HVc, RA, NXIIts)

Question 11

what do HVc neurons do?

Answer 11

respond to song
song-selective HVc neurons tuned to BOS

Question 12

BOS

Answer 12

bird’s own song, best reflection of bird stored memory

Question 13

how does species-specific learning emerge from song prosody?

Answer 13

• keeping song distinct from conspecifics
• avoiding divergence beyond their own species’ song identity

Question 14

what did experiment cross-fostering young zebra finch with male bengalese finch (tutor) find?

Answer 14

• it compared syllables and gaps
• found that temporal gap coding is innate but syllable morphology is experience-dependant

Question 15

what happens in L3?

Answer 15

two L3 neurons dissociate encoding of temporal gaps for morphology of acoustic elements

Question 16

what do L3 neurons do?

Answer 16

low firing (LF) neurons encode syllable-wide acoustic morphology, while high firing (HF) encode temporal alignment of syllables in zebra finch song