title: A variability-generating circuit goes awry in a songbird model of the FOXP2 speech disorder.
abstract: FOXP2 mutations cause a monogenic speech disorder in humans. In this issue of Neuron, Murugan et al. (2013) show that knockdown of FoxP2 in the songbird basal ganglia causes abnormal vocal variability and excess bursting in a frontal cortical nucleus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, W121 Corson Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Vikram
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gadagkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, W121 Corson Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Electronic address: jesse.goldberg@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Jesse H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Goldberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D059290:Dopaminergic Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; C506553:FoxP2 protein, zebrafish; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins