| Budget Amount *help |
¥18,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,230,000)
Fiscal Year 2016: ¥3,510,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥810,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥5,070,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,170,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥5,980,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,380,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Birdsong, like human speech, is acquired through vocal learning during a critical period. However, the neural mechanisms regulating the vocal learning period remain elusive. Here we show that the zebra finch generated highly plastic song even as adult, caused by inhibition of vocal practice during the critical period. This preserved vocal plasticity was accompanied by juvenile-like intense induction of singing activity-driven genes in the projection neurons of a telencephalic output nucleus of vocal motor circuit. Strikingly, singing-inhibited birds normally learned tutor song at adulthood, although they had similar expression of age-dependent genes as intact adults. These results indicate that the vocal learning period is age-independently modulated by the inducibility of activity-driven genes for modifying of synaptic plasticity to reduce vocal variability.
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