Journal
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 3, Issue 5, Pages 482-488Publisher
NATURE AMERICA INC
DOI: 10.1038/74857
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NIDCD NIH HHS [R01 DC02524, R01 DC002524] Funding Source: Medline
- NIMH NIH HHS [F31 MH11872] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Birdsong, like human speech, is learned via auditory experience during a developmentally restricted sensitive period. Within projection neurons of two avian forebrain nuclei, NMDA receptor-mediated EPSCs (NMDA-EPSCs) become fast during song development, a transition posited to limit learning. To discover whether slow NMDA-EPSCs at these synapses are required for learning, we delayed song learning beyond its normal endpoint, post-hatch day (PHD) 65, by raising zebra finches in isolation from song tutors. At PHD45, before learning, isolation delayed NMDA-EPSC maturation, but only transiently. By PHD65, NMDA-EPSCs in isolates were fast and adult-like, yet isolates presented with tutors readily learned song. Thus song learning did not require slow NMDA-EPSCs at synapses critical for song development.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available