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Parallel pathways for vocal learning in basal ganglia of songbirds

Nature Neuroscience volume 13, pages 153–155 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

The cortical nucleus LMAN (lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium) provides the output of a basal ganglia pathway that is necessary for vocal learning in juvenile songbirds. The shell subregion of LMAN (LMANshell) gives rise to recurrent loops that may subserve specific learning-related functions. We found that lesions in the LMANshell pathway caused no immediate disruption of vocal behavior, but prevented the development of stable vocal sequences and the ability to imitate vocal sounds.

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Figure 1: Core and shell pathways of LMAN.
Figure 2: Distribution of pitch in lesioned versus control birds.
Figure 3: Imitation of tutor (father) songs by lesioned versus control birds.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to V. Miller-Sims and F. Johnson for assistance with data analysis. This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant NS037547.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Sarah W Bottjer & Brie Altenau

Authors
  1. Sarah W Bottjer
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  2. Brie Altenau
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Contributions

B.A. conducted the experiments. S.W.B. and B.A. designed the experiments. S.W.B. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah W Bottjer.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–7, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 1270 kb)

Supplementary Audio 1

Examples of vocal behavior for birds shown in Supplementary Fig. 2 (.wav files). These audio files are sample recordings of a lesioned bird (Lb772; 92% lesioned) and Lg676 (0% lesioned); corresponding sonograms are shown in Supplementary Fig. 2. (WAV 557 kb)

Supplementary Audio 2

Examples of vocal behavior for birds shown in Supplementary Fig. 2 (.wav files). These audio files are sample recordings of a lesioned bird (Lb772; 92% lesioned) and Lg676 (0% lesioned); corresponding sonograms are shown in Supplementary Fig. 2. (WAV 695 kb)

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Bottjer, S., Altenau, B. Parallel pathways for vocal learning in basal ganglia of songbirds. Nat Neurosci 13, 153–155 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2472

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