Neuron
Volume 98, Issue 6, 27 June 2018, Pages 1133-1140.e3
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Stable Sequential Activity Underlying the Maintenance of a Precisely Executed Skilled Behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.05.017Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Monitored the activity of individual neurons in a singing bird over several weeks

  • The number and timing of song-related spiking events remained nearly identical

  • Stability in motor behaviors can be achieved through invariant neuronal tuning

Summary

A vast array of motor skills can be maintained throughout life. Do these behaviors require stability of individual neuron tuning or can the output of a given circuit remain constant despite fluctuations in single cells? This question is difficult to address due to the variability inherent in most motor actions studied in the laboratory. A notable exception, however, is the courtship song of the adult zebra finch, which is a learned, highly precise motor act mediated by orderly dynamics within premotor neurons of the forebrain. By longitudinally tracking the activity of excitatory projection neurons during singing using two-photon calcium imaging, we find that both the number and the precise timing of song-related spiking events remain nearly identical over the span of several weeks to months. These findings demonstrate that learned, complex behaviors can be stabilized by maintaining precise and invariant tuning at the level of single neurons.

Keywords

motor control
two-photon
calcium imaging
zebra finch
birdsong

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