APS March Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 15–19, 2010;
Portland, Oregon
Session X6: The Neural Dynamics of Songbirds
2:30 PM–5:30 PM,
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Room: Portland Ballroom 253
Sponsoring
Unit:
DBP
Chair: Dezhe Jin, The Pennsylvania State University
Abstract ID: BAPS.2010.MAR.X6.1
Abstract: X6.00001 : Sleep and Learning*
2:30 PM–3:06 PM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Daniel Margoliash
(University of Chicago)
The neural basis of cognition represents a grand challenge
problem involving multiple disciplines and approaches to the
analysis of behavior. Song learning by juvenile songbirds such as
zebra finches has proven to have considerable utility for
exploring how behavior is represented at multiple levels of brain
function. As classically described, young birds are exposed to a
``tutor'' (adult) song and commit that song to memory early in
life, then engage in an extended period (weeks) of plastic
singing as they slowly learn to match vocal output to the tutor
song memory via auditory feedback.
In recent years, the role of sleep in learning processes has
been actively explored. Young birds isolated from adult songs,
then suddenly given access to such songs at circa 40 days of age,
show a sudden change in their singing behavior starting on the
day following first exposure. Such birds sing songs that have
less structure in the mornings than do the songs sung in the
afternoons before or after that morning. This fluctuation is
directly the result of sleep (not circadian rhythm), and the
magnitude of fluctuation is positively correlated with the
ultimate similarity to the tutor song.
Examining spontaneous neuronal activity in certain brain
structures during the night in sleeping adults shows ``replay'' of
the patterns of activity the same neurons exhibit during daytime
singing, and ``preplay'' of new patterns that will first be
incorporated into daytime singing the following day. In
experiments on juveniles, nighttime neuronal activity shows
dramatic changes associated with song learning, even on the night
after the first day of tutor song exposure (preceding changes in
singing behavior).
Offline processing, especially sleep, has been well documented
to participate in memory consolidation in a very broad range of
behaviors including in humans. Placing the bird song results in a
theoretical framework thereby helps to inform a very broad range
of phenomena.
*Supported by NIMH and NIDCD.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2010.MAR.X6.1