title: Neural circuits. Inhibition protects acquired song segments during vocal learning in zebra finches.
abstract: Vocal imitation involves incorporating instructive auditory information into relevant motor circuits through processes that are poorly understood. In zebra finches, we found that exposure to a tutor's song drives spiking activity within premotor neurons in the juvenile, whereas inhibition suppresses such responses upon learning in adulthood. We measured inhibitory currents evoked by the tutor song throughout development while simultaneously quantifying each bird's learning trajectory. Surprisingly, we found that the maturation of synaptic inhibition onto premotor neurons is correlated with learning but not age. We used synthetic tutoring to demonstrate that inhibition is selective for specific song elements that have already been learned and not those still in refinement. Our results suggest that structured inhibition plays a crucial role during song acquisition, enabling a piece-by-piece mastery of complex tasks.
authors.affiliation: NYU Neuroscience Institute and Department of Otolaryngology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA. Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vallentin
authors.affiliation: NYU Neuroscience Institute and Department of Otolaryngology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA. Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kosche
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Vocal Learning, Department of Psychology, Hunter College, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Dina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lipkind
authors.affiliation: NYU Neuroscience Institute and Department of Otolaryngology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA. Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA. mlong@med.nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Long
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D046369:Finches / Q000502:physiology*; D053400:High Vocal Center / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009146:Music; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
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