Sleep, off-line processing, and vocal learning

Margoliash, Daniel; Schmidt, Marc F.

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2009.09.005

Cited by 63 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…Most birds were kept in the dark until the stimulus was presented, and they may have slept. Electrophysiological studies have demonstrated that the HVC shows spontaneous neuronal activity during sleep, similar to the activity recorded during singing (30)(31)(32). Thus, in the present study, a similar process may have occurred, which would then be limited to the left hemisphere.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 72%

Human-like brain hemispheric dominance in birdsong learning

Moorman

Gobes

Kuijpers

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Unlike nonhuman primates, songbirds learn to vocalize very much like human infants acquire spoken language. In humans, Broca's area in the frontal lobe and Wernicke's area in the temporal lobe are crucially involved in speech production and perception, respectively. Songbirds have analogous brain regions that show a similar neural dissociation between vocal production and auditory perception and memory. In both humans and songbirds, there is evidence for lateralization of neural responsiveness in these brain regions. Human infants already show left-sided dominance in their brain activation when exposed to speech. Moreover, a memoryspecific left-sided dominance in Wernicke's area for speech perception has been demonstrated in 2.5-mo-old babies. It is possible that auditory-vocal learning is associated with hemispheric dominance and that this association arose in songbirds and humans through convergent evolution. Therefore, we investigated whether there is similar song memory-related lateralization in the songbird brain. We exposed male zebra finches to tutor or unfamiliar song. We found left-sided dominance of neuronal activation in a Broca-like brain region (HVC, a letter-based name) of juvenile and adult zebra finch males, independent of the song stimulus presented. In addition, juvenile males showed left-sided dominance for tutor song but not for unfamiliar song in a Wernickelike brain region (the caudomedial nidopallium). Thus, left-sided dominance in the caudomedial nidopallium was specific for the song-learning phase and was memory-related. These findings demonstrate a remarkable neural parallel between birdsong and human spoken language, and they have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of auditory-vocal learning and its neural mechanisms.left-brain activation | hemispheric specialization | Taeniopygia guttata | language evolution

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 72%

Human-like brain hemispheric dominance in birdsong learning

Moorman

Gobes

Kuijpers

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…However, two rodent studies that cued fear memories during SWS by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus, found the opposite, i.e., strengthening of the originally learnt fear memory (Rolls et al, 2013;Barnes and Wilson, 2014). All in all, whether memory consolidation during sleep represents unsupervised learning (Margoliash and Schmidt, 2010) or a process whose efficacy critically depends on evaluative feedback mechanism, remains an open question.…”

Section: Systems Consolidation During Sleep: Unsupervised Learning?mentioning

confidence: 96%

The Consolidation and Transformation of Memory

Dudai

Karni

Born

2015

Neuron

566

487

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Memory consolidation refers to the transformation over time of experience-dependent internal representations and their neurobiological underpinnings. The process is assumed to be embodied in synaptic and cellular modifications at brain circuits in which the memory is initially encoded and to proceed by recurrent reactivations, both during wakefulness and during sleep, culminating in the distribution of information to additional locales and integration of new information into existing knowledge. We present snapshots of our current knowledge and gaps in knowledge concerning the progress of consolidation over time and the cognitive architecture that supports it and shapes our long-term memories.

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“…Phasic reactivation during sleep in song system nuclei has been proposed to serve in off-line motor system processing during the initial learning period of juveniles, and possibly also in maintaining singing quality of adults (Margoliash 2005;Margoliash and Schmidt 2010). The AFP, which directly modulates the level of plasticity in motor networks (Brainard and Doupe 2000;Kao et al 2005), may also play a critical role in off-line modulation of singing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%