“Neural circuit mechanisms for acquisition and consolidation of socially learned vocal behaviors”

The emergence and development of complex skills are greatly influenced by social experiences after birth. One of the prominent examples is our ability of vocal communication, or human language. However, neural basis of learned vocal communication is largely unknown, because there is no suitable mammalian animal model that can learn vocalization or display imitative learning in laboratory spaces. In avian species, songbirds can provide an attractive animal model to address the brain mechanisms underlying socially learned vocalization. These avian species, much like humans, learn to imitate complex vocal signals during the postnatal development and maintain their learned vocal behaviors through the whole life. In this research project, we study circuit mechanisms involved in the switch from acquisition to consolidation of vocal skills by using in vivo electrophysiological and imaging techniques.
Because both learning and maintenance of complex vocalization in songbirds require a dedicated vocal control circuit homologous to cortico-basal ganglia circuits in mammals, circuit shift mechanisms from acquisition to consolidation of complex learned skills may be shared with these two animal classes. We therefore apply our in vivo electrophysiological and imaging techniques to the analyses of operantly learned behaviors in mice. The comparison may be helpful for our understanding not only for the conserved circuit mechanisms between two species, but also for the similarities and differences in circuit mechanisms between operant and imitative learning processes.

 
Recent Publications
1. Abe, K., Matsui, S., and Watanabe, D. (2015) Transgenic songbirds with suppressed or enhanced activity of CREB transcription factor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 112: 7599-7604.
2. Hasegawa, T., Fujimoto, H., Tashiro, K., Nonomura, M., Tsuchiya, A., and Watanabe, D. (2015) A wireless neural recording system with a precision motorized microdrive for freely behaving animals. Sci. Rep. 5: 7853.
3. Fujimoto, H., Hasegawa, T., and Watanabe, D. (2011) Neural coding of syntactic structure in learned vocalizations in the songbird. J Neurosci. 31: 10023–10033.

Posted:2016/02/26