Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Basal Ganglia: Songbird Models

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

  • 27 Accesses

Definition

Songbirds use learned vocalization to communicate. During initial song acquisition, juvenile birds reproduce adult vocalizations through a process very similar to speech learning in babies. Initial “babbling” vocalizations are turned into a faithful copy of the tutor song through a trial-and-error process that relies on a basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuit (Basal Ganglia: Overview).

Detailed Description

Songbirds use learned vocalizations to communicate during courtship or aggressive behaviors. These vocalizations, called song, require fast coordination of laryngeal and respiratory muscles. Songbirds learn their song as juveniles through a long process comprising two sequential phases: the juvenile first listens to and memorizes one or more tutor songs, and then uses auditory feedback to match its song to the memorized model through trial-and-error.

While song production is under the control of two cortical nuclei, HVC (used as a proper name) and the robust nucleus of...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andalman AS, Fee MS (2009) A basal ganglia-forebrain circuit in the songbird biases motor output to avoid vocal errors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:12518–12523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brainard MS, Doupe AJ (2002) What songbirds teach us about learning. Nature 417:351–358

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Darshan R, Wood WE, Peters S, Leblois A, Hansel D (2017) A canonical neural mechanism for behavioral variability. Nat Commun 8:15415

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doupe AJ, Solis MM (1997) Song- and order-selective neurons develop in the songbird anterior forebrain during vocal learning. J Neurobiol 33:694–709

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doupe AJ, Perkel DJ, Reiner A, Stern EA (2005) Birdbrains could teach basal ganglia research a new song. Trends Neurosci 28:353–363

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doya K (2000) Complementary roles of basal ganglia and cerebellum in learning and motor control. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 10:732–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4388(00)00153-7, PMID: 11240282

  • Doya K, Sejnowski TJ (1998) A computational model of birdsong learning by auditory experience and auditory feedback. In: Poon PWF, Brugge JF (eds) Central auditory processing and neural modeling. Plenum, New York, pp 77–88

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Farries MA, Perkel DJ (2002) A telencephalic nucleus essential for song learning contains neurons with physiological characteristics of both striatum and globus pallidus. J Neurosci 22:3776–3787

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fee MS, Goldberg JH (2011) A hypothesis for basal ganglia-dependent reinforcement learning in the songbird. Neuroscience 198:152–170

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fiete IR, Fee MS, Seung HS (2007) Model of birdsong learning based on gradient estimation by dynamic perturbation of neural conductances. J Neurophysiol 98:2038–2057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gadagkar V, Puzerey PA, Chen R, Baird-Daniel E, Farhang AR, Goldberg JH (2016) Dopamine neurons encode performance error in singing birds. Science 354:1278–1282

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ganguli S, Hahnloser RHR (2013) Bird song learning without reinforcement: the Hebbian self-organization of sensorimotor circuits. Soc Neurosci. Abstr 105.12/YY4

    Google Scholar 

  • Giret N, Kornfeld J, Ganguli S, Hahnloser RH (2014) Evidence for a causal inverse model in an avian cortico-basal ganglia circuit. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111:6063–6068

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann LA, Saravanan V, Wood AN, He L, Sober SJ (2016) Dopaminergic contributions to vocal learning. J Neurosci 36:2176–2189

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kao MH, Doupe AJ, Brainard MS (2005) Contributions of an avian basal ganglia-forebrain circuit to real-time modulation of song. Nature 433:638–643

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leblois A, Bodor AL, Person AL, Perkel DJ (2009) Millisecond timescale disinhibition of thalamic neurons by relief of single spike basal ganglia GABAergic veto. J Neurosci 29:15420–15433

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo A (2004) Experimental test of the birdsong error-correction model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:16935–16940

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Olveczky BP, Andalman AS, Fee MS (2005) Vocal experimentation in the juvenile songbird requires a basal ganglia circuit. PLoS Biol 3:e153

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prather JF, Peters S, Nowicki S, Mooney R (2008) Precise auditory-vocal mirroring in neurons for learned vocal communication. Nature 451:305–310

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reiner A, Medina L, Veenman CL (1998) Structural and functional evolution of the basal ganglia in vertebrates. Brain Res Brain Res Rev 28:235–285

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scharff C, Nottebohm F (1991) A comparative study of the behavioral deficits following lesions of various parts of the zebra finch song system: implications for vocal learning. J Neurosci 11:2896–2913

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Troyer TW, Doupe AJ (2000) An associational model of birdsong sensorimotor learning I. Efference copy and the learning of song syllables. J Neurophysiol 84:1204–1223

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wickens JR, Reynolds JN, Hyland BI (2003) Neural mechanisms of reward-related motor learning. Curr Opin Neurobiol 13:685–690

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, UMR, Université de Bordeaux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Bordeaux, France

    Arthur Leblois

  2. HHMI, Ashburn, VA, USA

    Ran Darshan

Authors
  1. Arthur Leblois
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ran Darshan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arthur Leblois .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, GA, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Ranu Jung

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jonathan E. Rubin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Leblois, A., Darshan, R. (2020). Basal Ganglia: Songbird Models. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_84-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_84-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Basal Ganglia: Songbird Models
    Published:
    02 September 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_84-2

  2. Original

    Basal Ganglia: Songbird Models
    Published:
    12 February 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_84-1

Search

Navigation