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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 10, 1541-1556, Copyright © 1990 by Society for Neuroscience
Brain pathways for learned and unlearned vocalizations differ in zebra finches
HB Simpson and DS Vicario
Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021.
Male zebra finches sing, females do not. However, both sexes produce the
"long call" when placed in visual isolation. This call is sexually
dimorphic; it includes learned components in males but not in females. The
3 learned features of the male long call are a high fundamental frequency,
a fast frequency modulation, and a short, stable duration. These features
are learned by the male during development, as is song. Since similar
features are also found in song syllables, we wanted to know whether
long-call production depends on the same CNS pathway that controls song
production. Three critical components of the song pathway are telencephalic
nuclei HVC, RA, and the tracheosyringeal (ts) nerves innervating the
syrinx. In male zebra finches, bilateral section of the ts nerves affected
the fundamental frequency and fast frequency modulations of both the long
call and song but left the temporal features intact. Ts nerve section had
no effect on the female long call. Bilateral lesions of either HVC or RA in
males affected the fundamental frequency, fast frequency modulations, and
temporal structure of both the long call and song. Similar lesions had no
effect on the female long call. These results demonstrate that HVC, RA, and
the ts nerves make critical contributions to the acoustic features of the
male long call and song, while the temporal pattern depends on HVC and RA
but not the ts nerves. HVC and RA lesions remove all the learned features
that distinguish the male call and reveal a simple unlearned vocalization
shared by both sexes. We suggest that the learned features of oscine
songbird vocalizations are controlled by a telencephalic pathway that acts
in concert with other pathways responsible for simpler, unlearned
vocalizations.
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