期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2000
卷号：97
期号：5
页码：2282-2285
DOI：10.1073/pnas.030539097
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Songbirds (Oscines) learn their songs from a tutor. It is not known where in the brain the memories of these learned sounds are stored. Recent evidence suggests that song perception in songbirds involves neuronal activation in brain regions that have not traditionally been implicated in the control of song production or song learning, notably the caudal part of the neostriatum (NCM) and of the hyperstriatum ventrale. Zebra finch males (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis) were reared without their father and exposed to a tape-recorded song during the sensitive period for song learning. When, as adults, they were reexposed to the tutor song, the males showed increased expression of the protein products of the immediate early genes egr-1 (ZENK) and c-fos in the NCM and caudal hyperstriatum ventrale, but not in the conventional "song-control nuclei." The strength of the immediate early gene response (which is a reflection of neuronal activation) in the NCM correlated significantly and positively with the number of song elements that the birds had copied from the tutor song. These results show localized neural activation in response to tutor song exposure that correlates with the strength of song learning.
