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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 14, 2004, 24(2):488-494; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4358-03.2004

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Long-Term Potentiation in an Avian Basal Ganglia Nucleus Essential for Vocal Learning

Long Ding¹ and David J. Perkel²

¹Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, and ²Departments of Biology and Otolaryngology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-6515

Vocal learning in songbirds provides an excellent model for sensorimotor learning in vertebrates, with an accessible, well-defined behavior and discrete neural substrate. The rich behavioral plasticity exhibited by songbirds, however, contrasts starkly with the scarcity of candidate cellular mechanisms. Here, we report for the first time on an activity-dependent form of synaptic plasticity in area X, a component of the song system required for song learning and song maintenance. In slice preparations of zebra finch area X, pairing of high-frequency presynaptic stimulation with postsynaptic depolarization induces Hebbian long-term potentiation (LTP) of the glutamatergic inputs to spiny neurons. This form of LTP requires activation of NMDA receptors and D1-like dopamine receptors. In addition, LTP is observed in birds as young as 47 d after hatching and also in adult birds but not in younger birds, providing evidence of developmental regulation of the onset of synaptic plasticity. These properties make this form of LTP the best known candidate mechanism for reinforcement-based vocal learning in juveniles and song maintenance in adult birds.

Key words: synaptic plasticity; song learning; songbird; basal ganglia; dopamine; glutamate

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Received Sep 24, 2003; revised November 14, 2003; accepted November 15, 2003.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. D. Gale and D. J. Perkel Physiological Properties of Zebra Finch Ventral Tegmental Area and Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta Neurons J Neurophysiol, November 1, 2006; 96(5): 2295 - 2306. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Sasaki, T. D. Sotnikova, R. R. Gainetdinov, and E. D. Jarvis Social context-dependent singing-regulated dopamine. J. Neurosci., August 30, 2006; 26(35): 9010 - 9014. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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