ArticlePloS one2010
Song practice promotes acute vocal variability at a key stage of sensorimotor learning.
Article in PloS one, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic and molecular mechanisms of the FOXP2-CNTNAP2 pathway in Autism spectrum disorders and speech disorders.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Pooled it
- Normative aging results in degradation of gene networks in a zebra finch basal ganglia nucleus dedicated to vocal behavior.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Article
- Article
- Song preferences predict the quality of vocal learning in zebra finches.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Inhibition of miR-128 Enhances Vocal Sequence Organization in Juvenile Songbirds.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Article
- Defining the multidimensional phenotype: New opportunities to integrate the behavioral ecology and behavioral neuroscience of vocal learning.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- Expression of FoxP2 in the basal ganglia regulates vocal motor sequences in the adult songbird.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Wireless battery free fully implantable multimodal recording and neuromodulation tools for songbirds.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Redundancy and multifunctionality among spinal locomotor networks.Journal of neurophysiology · 2020Article
- Birdsong as a window into language origins and evolutionary neuroscience.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Does audience affect the structure of warble song in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus)?Behavioural processes · 2019Article
- Bidirectional scaling of vocal variability by an avian cortico-basal ganglia circuit.Physiological reports · 2018Article
- FoxP2 isoforms delineate spatiotemporal transcriptional networks for vocal learning in the zebra finch.eLife · 2018Article
- Reduced vocal variability in a zebra finch model of dopamine depletion: implications for Parkinson disease.Physiological reports · 2015Article
- Corticostriatal dynamics encode the refinement of specific behavioral variability during skill learning.eLife · 2015Article
- VoICE: A semi-automated pipeline for standardizing vocal analysis across models.Scientific reports · 2015Article
- Behavior-linked FoxP2 regulation enables zebra finch vocal learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2015Article
- Expression analysis of the speech-related genes FoxP1 and FoxP2 and their relation to singing behavior in two songbird species.The Journal of experimental biology · 2013Article
- Neural representation of a target auditory memory in a cortico-basal ganglia pathway.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTrial by trial variability during motor learning is a feature encoded by the basal ganglia of both humans and songbirds, and is important for reinforcement of optimal motor patterns, including those that produce speech and birdsong. Given the many parallels between these behaviors, songbirds provide a useful model to investigate neural mechanisms underlying vocal learning. In juvenile and adult male zebra finches, endogenous levels of FoxP2, a molecule critical for language, decrease two hours after morning song onset within area X, part of the basal ganglia-forebrain pathway dedicated to song. In juveniles, experimental 'knockdown' of area X FoxP2 results in abnormally variable song in adulthood. These findings motivated our hypothesis that low FoxP2 levels increase vocal variability, enabling vocal motor exploration in normal birds. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsAfter two hours in either singing or non-singing conditions (previously shown to produce differential area X FoxP2 levels), phonological and sequential features of the subsequent songs were compared across conditions in the same bird. In line with our prediction, analysis of songs sung by 75 day (75d) birds revealed that syllable structure was more variable and sequence stereotypy was reduced following two hours of continuous practice compared to these features following two hours of non-singing. Similar trends in song were observed in these birds at 65d, despite higher overall within-condition variability at this age. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Together with previous work, these findings point to the importance of behaviorally-driven acute periods during song learning that allow for both refinement and reinforcement of motor patterns. Future work is aimed at testing the observation that not only does vocal practice influence expression of molecular networks, but that these networks then influence subsequent variability in these skills.
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Registered trials
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