| Project/Area Number |
19K16302
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
|
| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
|---|
| Review Section |
Basic Section 46030:Function of nervous system-related
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
Katic Jelena 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 臨界期の神経メカニズム研究ユニット, ポストドクトラルスカラー (10834947)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
|
| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
|
| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,290,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥990,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000)
|
|---|
| Keywords | song learning / neuronal circuits / Noradrenaline / LC-NCM neuronal circuit / zebra finch / development / memory formation / auditory responsiveness / attention / learning / song / Songbirds / Auditory system / Attention / Song learning |
|---|
| Outline of Research at the Start |
The objective of this project is to understand how the activity of LC neurons changes the selectivity of NCM neurons to the tutor song and how that affects learning. I will record and compare the NCM neuronal activities in juvenile birds listening to the ‘live’ tutor song with those exposed passively to the
tutor song while exciting or inhibiting LC neurons.
|
| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Social interactions are essential when learning to communicate. However, the neural mechanism of social vocal learning remains unknown. This project aimed to characterize a neural circuit for integration of social information in support of accurate song learning in the zebra finch. I recorded neural activity in the attention control center, the locus coeruleus (LC), of juvenile birds during song learning from a live adult tutor. LC activity increased with social information during learning. During live social song learning, LC activity regulated long-term song-selective neural responsiveness in an auditory memory region, the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). Optogenetic inhibition of LC terminals in the NCM reduced NCM neuronal responsiveness to live tutor singing and impaired song learning. These results demonstrate that the LC-NCM neural circuit integrates sensory evidence of real social interactions, to instruct song learning.
|
| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
These findings suggest a general mechanism for validating social information in brain development.
|
