2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

learning of song. We used short-day male canaries that produced syllables with
different levels of stability and testosterone-treated female canaries that developed
song over the course of the two weeks during which they were recorded.
We found that the timing of the electrophysiological activity was highly correlated to
the timing of the vocal output in both male and female canaries. During song
development the variation in electrophysiological activity became more related to
the variation in acoustic features as the songs became more stable. However,
whereas the variation in acoustic features between syllables seems to change over
time, the variation in electrophysiological activity between syllables remains the
same.
����170 Michiel Vellema
Experience-dependent recurrence of vocal motor patterns
Authors: Michiel Vellema 1 , Sabrina Bascones 2 , Annemie van der Linden 2 , Manfred
Gahr 1
Affiliations: 1 Max Planck Institute for Ornithology; 2 Bio-Imaging Lab, University of
Antwerp
The development of birdsong is dependent on the ability to precisely coordinate the
respiratory system with the muscles of the vocal organ, the syrinx. Seasonally
breeding birds such as the canary (Serinus canaria) annually go through a period in
which they do not sing, and therefore the fine motor control necessary for producing
the complex vocal patterns needs to be re-acquired each year.
To investigate the dynamic acquisition of vocal motor patterns and re-acquisition
after a period of non-use, we recorded the complete vocal ontogeny of female
canaries after repeated testosterone treatments. In parallel, anatomical changes to a
song nucleus involved in vocal learning and production, area X of the basal ganglia,
were repeatedly examined using Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
In our study we observed that female canaries re-acquire the exact same vocal
patterns with identical temporal precision after recurring hormone-induced
behavioral stimulation. After a second stimulation, these vocal patterns emerged
much faster than after the first stimulation, indicating that songbirds can retain and
reuse information from previously acquired motor skills to shape future motor
behaviors. Area X volumes increased during song development, but did not retain its
increased size after hormone down-regulation and the associated termination of
song production. Thus hormone-induced restructuring of brain areas involved in
vocal learning and production are not maintained between emergence, loss, and reemergence
of motor patterning, suggesting that the long-term storage of vocal
motor patterns must be looked for outside the traditional song control system.
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