Tutor auditory memory for guiding sensorimotor learning in birdsong.

Memory-guided motor shaping is necessary for sensorimotor learning. Vocal learning, such as speech development in human babies and song learning in bird juveniles, begins with the formation of an auditory template by hearing adult voices followed by vocally matching to the memorized template using auditory feedback. In zebra finches, the widely used songbird model system, only males develop individually unique stereotyped songs.

Transient sensorimotor projections in the developmental song learning period.

Memory recall and guidance are essential for motor skill acquisition. Like humans learning to speak, male zebra finches learn to sing by first memorizing and then matching their vocalization to the tutor's song (TS) during specific developmental periods. Yet, the neuroanatomical substrate supporting auditory-memory-guided sensorimotor learning has remained elusive.

Neural circuit for social authentication in song learning.

Social interactions are essential when learning to communicate. In human speech and bird song, infants must acquire accurate vocalization patterns and learn to associate them with live tutors and not mimetic sources. However, the neural mechanism of social reality during vocal learning remains unknown.

Estrogens rapidly shape synaptic and intrinsic properties to regulate the temporal precision of songbird auditory neurons.

Sensory neurons parse millisecond-variant sound streams like birdsong and speech with exquisite precision. The auditory pallial cortex of vocal learners like humans and songbirds contains an unconventional neuromodulatory system: neuronal expression of the estrogen synthesis enzyme aromatase. Local forebrain neuroestrogens fluctuate when songbirds hear a song, and subsequently modulate bursting, gain, and temporal coding properties of auditory neurons.

Genetically identified neurons in avian auditory pallium mirror core principles of their mammalian counterparts.

In vertebrates, advanced cognitive abilities are typically associated with the telencephalic pallium. In mammals, the pallium is a layered mixture of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal populations with distinct molecular, physiological, and network phenotypes. This cortical architecture is proposed to support efficient, high-level information processing.