ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2016
Dopaminergic Contributions to Vocal Learning.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- Striatal Dopamine at Learned Sequence Boundaries Sustains Birdsong.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Estimating the motor exploration in reinforcement learning.iScience · 2026Article
- Reward-driven adaptation of movements requires strong recurrent basal ganglia-cortical loops.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Correctness is its own reward: bootstrapping error signals in self-guided reinforcement learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Neural mechanism of dopamine modulating singing related behavior in songbirds: an updated review.PeerJ · 2025Review
- Neurochemical Characterization of Dopaminoceptive Cells in Song Control Nuclei of Canaries and Their Activation During Song Production: A Multiplex Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization Study.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2024Article
- Goal-directed vocal planning in a songbird.eLife · 2024Article
- Learning the sound inventory of a complex vocal skill via an intrinsic reward.Science advances · 2024Article
- Tutor auditory memory for guiding sensorimotor learning in birdsong.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2024Review
- Article
- A neural hub for holistic courtship displays.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Songbird mesostriatal dopamine pathways are spatially segregated before the onset of vocal learning.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- Dopamine neurons evaluate natural fluctuations in performance quality.Cell reports · 2022Article
- Songbird subthalamic neurons project to dopaminergic midbrain and exhibit singing-related activity.Journal of neurophysiology · 2022Article
- Motor constellation theory: A model of infants' phonological development.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Neural correlates of vocal initiation in the VTA/SNc of juvenile male zebra finches.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Intrinsic motivation for singing in songbirds is enhanced by temporary singing suppression and regulated by dopamine.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- New roles for dopamine in motor skill acquisition: lessons from primates, rodents, and songbirds.Journal of neurophysiology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Although the brain relies on auditory information to calibrate vocal behavior, the neural substrates of vocal learning remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that lesions of the dopaminergic inputs to a basal ganglia nucleus in a songbird species (Bengalese finches, Lonchura striata var. domestica) greatly reduced the magnitude of vocal learning driven by disruptive auditory feedback in a negative reinforcement task. These lesions produced no measureable effects on the quality of vocal performance or the amount of song produced. Our results suggest that dopaminergic inputs to the basal ganglia selectively mediate reinforcement-driven vocal plasticity. In contrast, dopaminergic lesions produced no measurable effects on the birds' ability to restore song acoustics to baseline following the cessation of reinforcement training, suggesting that different forms of vocal plasticity may use different neural mechanisms. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: During skill learning, the brain relies on sensory feedback to improve motor performance. However, the neural basis of sensorimotor learning is poorly understood. Here, we investigate the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in regulating vocal learning in the Bengalese finch, a songbird with an extremely precise singing behavior that can nevertheless be reshaped dramatically by auditory feedback. Our findings show that reduction of dopamine inputs to a region of the songbird basal ganglia greatly impairs vocal learning but has no detectable effect on vocal performance. These results suggest a specific role for dopamine in regulating vocal plasticity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.