title: Food rewards modulate the activity of song neurons in Bengalese finches.
abstract: Vocal learning, a critical component of speech acquisition, is a rare trait in animals. Songbirds are a well-established animal model in vocal learning research; male birds acquire novel vocal patterns and have a well-developed 'song system' in the brain. Although this system is unique to songbirds, anatomical and physiological studies have reported similarities between the song system and the thalamo-cortico-basal ganglia circuit that is conserved among reptiles, birds, and mammals. Here, we focused on the similarity of the neural response between these two systems while animals were engaging in operant tasks. Neurons in the basal ganglia of vertebrates are activated in response to food rewards and reward predictions in behavioral tasks. A striatal nucleus in the avian song system, Area X, is necessary for vocal learning and is considered specialized for singing. We found that the spiking activity of singing-related Area X neurons was modulated by food rewards and reward signals in an operant task. As previous studies showed that Area X is not critical for general cognitive tasks, the role of Area X in general learning might be limited and vestigial. However, our results provide a new viewpoint to investigate the independence of the vocal learning system from neural systems involved in other cognitive tasks.
authors.affiliation: Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, Wako, 3510198, Japan.|Laboratory for Biolinguistics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, 3510198, Japan.|Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 1538902, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshimasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Vocal Behavior Mechanisms, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, 3510198, Japan.
authors.forename: Neal A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Hessler
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Okanoya Emotional Information Project, Wako, 3510198, Japan.|Laboratory for Biolinguistics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, 3510198, Japan.|Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 1538902, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okanoya
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D046369:Finches / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: basal ganglia; operant conditioning; songbirds; vocal learning