Linked Life Data

20884763

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/20884763

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
5
pubmed:dateCreated
2010-11-3
pubmed:abstractText
Variability in adult motor output is important for enabling animals to respond to changing external conditions. Songbirds are useful for studying variability because they alter the amount of variation in their song depending on social context. When an adult zebra finch male sings to a female ("directed"), his song is highly stereotyped, but when he sings alone ("undirected"), his song varies across renditions. Lesions of the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium (LMAN), the output nucleus of a cortical-basal ganglia circuit for song, reduce song variability to that of the stereotyped "performance" state. However, such lesions not only eliminate LMAN's synaptic input to its targets, but can also cause structural or physiological changes in connected brain regions, and thus cannot assess whether the acute activity of LMAN is important for social modulation of adult song variability. To evaluate the effects of ongoing LMAN activity, we reversibly silenced LMAN in singing zebra finches by bilateral reverse microdialysis of the GABA(A) receptor agonist muscimol. We found that LMAN inactivation acutely reduced undirected song variability, both across and even within syllable renditions, to the level of directed song variability in all birds examined. Song variability returned to pre-muscimol inactivation levels after drug washout. However, unlike LMAN lesions, LMAN inactivation did not eliminate social context effects on song tempo in adult birds. These results indicate that the activity of LMAN neurons acutely and actively generates social context-dependent increases in adult song variability but that social regulation of tempo is more complex.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Nov
pubmed:issn
1522-1598
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
104
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
2474-86
pubmed:dateRevised
2011-11-1
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2010
pubmed:articleTitle
Activity in a cortical-basal ganglia circuit for song is required for social context-dependent vocal variability.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Psychiatry, W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0444, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural