Neural mechanisms of sensorimotor learning in cortico-basal ganglia pathways
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: For over 70 years the study of vocal learning in songbirds, pioneered by William Thorpe and Peter Marler, has been transformative in the research of such areas as adult neurogenesis, the role of hormones in development and behavior, and genetic factors underlying complex behavior. Moreover, songbirds provide an ideal model for studying mechanisms of sensorimotor integration and imitative motor learning. In a process analogous to the acquisition of human speech, songbirds learn a specific vocal pattern by listening to adult male ""tutor"" song during a sensitive period early in life. Like humans, songbirds learn to imitate those communication sounds by vocalizing and using sensory feedback to compare incipient babbling to the memory of tutor sounds. This dissertation addresses one major unresolved question with regard to mechanisms of vocal learning: what neural circuits carry out comparisons of vocal feedback to the tutor sounds, and how is this comparison achieved?
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2519611629