Responses to song playback differ in sleeping versus anesthetized songbirds

Abstract

Vocal learning in songbirds is mediated by a highly localized system of interconnected forebrain regions, including recurrent loops that traverse the cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus. This brain-behavior system provides a powerful model for elucidating mechanisms of vocal learning, with implications for learning speech in human infants, as well as for advancing our understanding of skill learning in general. A long history of experiments in this area has tested neural responses to playback of different song stimuli in anesthetized birds at different stages of vocal development. These studies have demonstrated selectivity for different song types that provide neural signatures of learning. In contrast to the ease of obtaining responses to song playback in anesthetized birds, song-evoked responses in awake birds are greatly reduced or absent, indicating that behavioral state is an important determinant of neural responsivity. Song-evoked responses can be elicited in sleeping as well as anesthetized zebra finches, and the selectivity of responses to song playback in adult birds tends to be highly similar between anesthetized and sleeping states, encouraging the idea that anesthesia and sleep are highly similar. In contrast to that idea, we report evidence that cortical responses to song playback in juvenile zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) differ greatly between sleep and urethane anesthesia. This finding indicates that behavioral states differ in sleep versus anesthesia and raises questions about relationships between developmental changes in sleep activity, selectivity for different song types, and the neural substrate for vocal learning.

Urethane anaesthesia exhibits neurophysiological correlates of unconsciousness and is distinct from sleep

“…Hence, it is possible that cognitive functions that are known to be carried on during sleep, such as memory consolidation (Hobson, 2009;Stickgold, 2005), are not taking place during urethane anaesthesia. These results are supported by recent research that has demonstrated another electrophysiological difference between sleep and urethane anaesthesia; cortical responses to songs in songbirds are clearly distinct between these conditions (Bottjer et al, 2022).…”