Auditory experience-dependent cortical circuit shaping for memory formation in bird song learning.
As in human speech acquisition, songbird vocal learning depends on early auditory experience. During development, juvenile songbirds listen to and form auditory memories of adult tutor songs, which they use to shape their own vocalizations in later sensorimotor learning. The higher-level auditory cortex, called the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), is a potential storage site for tutor song memory, but no direct electrophysiological evidence of tutor song memory has been found. Here, we identify the neuronal substrate for tutor song memory by recording single-neuron activity in the NCM of behaving juvenile zebra finches. After tutor song experience, a small subset of NCM neurons exhibit highly selective auditory responses to the tutor song. Moreover, blockade of GABAergic inhibition, and sleep decrease their selectivity. Taken together, these results suggest that experience-dependent recruitment of GABA-mediated inhibition shapes auditory cortical circuits, leading to sparse representation of tutor song memory in auditory cortical neurons.
Neuronal Mechanism for Critical Period Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, 1919-1, Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
Shin
S
Yanagihara
Neuronal Mechanism for Critical Period Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, 1919-1, Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
Yoko
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2052-4162
Y
Yazaki-Sugiyama
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D046369:Finches; D018756:GABA Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D011724:Pyridazines / Q000494:pharmacology; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A / Q000378:metabolism; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
D018756:GABA Antagonists; D011724:Pyridazines; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; C049853:gabazine