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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 30, 2006, 26(35):9010-9014; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1335-06.2006

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Brief Communications
Social Context-Dependent Singing-Regulated Dopamine

Aya Sasaki,¹ Tatyana D. Sotnikova,² Raul R. Gainetdinov,² and Erich D. Jarvis¹

Departments of ¹Neurobiology and ²Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Correspondence should be addressed to Erich D. Jarvis, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3209, Durham, NC 27710. Email: jarvis{at}neuro.duke.edu

Like the mammalian striatum, the songbird striatum receives dense dopaminergic input from the midbrain ventral tegmental area–substantia nigra pars compacta complex. The songbird striatum also contains a unique vocal nucleus, Area X, which has been implicated in song learning and social context-dependent song production. Area X shows increased neural firing and activity-dependent gene expression when birds sing, and the level of activation is higher and more variable during undirected singing relative to directed singing to other birds. Here we show in the first report of in vivo microdialysis in awake, behaving songbirds that singing is associated with increased dopamine levels in Area X. Dopamine levels are significantly higher with directed relative to undirected singing. This social context-dependent difference in dopamine levels requires the dopamine transporter, because local in vivo blockade of the transporter caused dopamine levels for undirected singing to increase to levels similar to that for directed singing, eliminating the social context-dependent difference. The increase in dopamine is presumably depolarization and vesicular release dependent, because adding of high K⁺ increased and removal of Ca²⁺ increased and decreased extracellular DA levels. Our findings implicate DA and molecules that control DA kinetics in singing behavior and social context-dependent brain function.

Key words: basal ganglia; zebra finch; nomifensine; DAT; birdsong; egr-1 (ZENK)

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Received March 29, 2006; revised July 25, 2006; accepted July 25, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Erich D. Jarvis, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3209, Durham, NC 27710. Email: jarvis{at}neuro.duke.edu

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