title: Timing and prediction the code from basal ganglia to thalamus.
abstract: When is an inhibitory synapse not inhibitory? In this issue of Neuron, Person and Perkel demonstrate that thalamic neurons can translate extrinsic GABAergic input from the basal ganglia into highly precise patterns of sustained spiking in a circuit that is essential for vocal learning in songbirds. Postinhibitory rebound serves as a mechanism that preserves precise spike timing information, enabling reliable propagation of activity throughout this pathway. The results have broad implications for basic mechanisms of functional processing in both thalamus and basal ganglia and serve to increase our understanding of how acoustic units of vocal sounds are transformed into motor gestures during the sensitive period for song learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Bottjer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D020308:Songbirds / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology