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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 15, 1999, 19(20):9107-9116
Two-Stage, Input-Specific Synaptic Maturation in a Nucleus
Essential for Vocal Production in the Zebra Finch
Laura L.
Stark and
David J.
Perkel
Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
In most songbirds, vocal learning occurs through two
experience-dependent phases, culminating in a reduction of behavioral plasticity called song crystallization. At ends of developmentally plastic periods in other systems, synaptic properties change in a
fashion appropriate to limit plasticity. Maturation of glutamatergic synapses often involves a reduction in duration of NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-mediated synaptic responses and a coincident reduction in the
contribution of NMDARs to synaptic transmission. We hypothesized that
similar changes in the zebra finch song system help limit behavioral
plasticity during song development. Nucleus robustus archistriatalis (RA) is a key nucleus in the forebrain song motor pathway and receives glutamatergic input from the motor nucleus HVc. RA also receives glutamatergic input, mediated primarily by
NMDARs, from the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum, which is part of a circuit essential for learning but not song production. We examined whether synaptic maturation occurs
in either input to RA by recording synaptic currents in brain slices
prepared from zebra finches of different ages. We find the motor input
from HVc to RA uses both AMPA receptors (AMPARs) and NMDARs, and
synaptic maturation occurs in two phases: an early reduction in
duration of NMDAR-mediated synaptic currents in both inputs, and a
later reduction in the NMDAR contribution to synaptic responses in the
motor pathway. Although NMDAR kinetics change too early to account for
crystallization, the reduction of the relative NMDAR contribution to
synaptic transmission could contribute to the onset of crystallization.
Thus, synaptic maturation events can be temporally distinct and
input-specific and may play different roles in behavioral plasticity.
Key words:
NMDA receptor; synaptic maturation; developmental
plasticity; neural plasticity; songbird; song learning
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/19209107-10$05.00/0
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