ArticleNeuron2018
A Basal Ganglia Circuit Sufficient to Guide Birdsong Learning.
Article in Neuron, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- Striatal Dopamine at Learned Sequence Boundaries Sustains Birdsong.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A synaptic locus of song learning.Nature · 2026Article
- Real-Time Segmentation and Classification of Birdsong Syllables for Learning Experiments.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Dopaminergic Innervation of the Nidopallium Caudolaterale in the Japanese Quail.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2026Article
- High-throughput assessment of vocal modulation following chemogenetic inhibition in songbirds.iScience · 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
- Subsecond dopamine fluctuations do not specify the vigor of ongoing actions.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Correctness is its own reward: bootstrapping error signals in self-guided reinforcement learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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- Comparative approaches to the neurobiology of avian vocal learning.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
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- Context-dependent modulations in zebra finch distance calls revealed by a novel goal-directed vocalization paradigm.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Delta opioid receptors affect acoustic features of song during vocal learning in zebra finches.BMC neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neural mechanism of dopamine modulating singing related behavior in songbirds: an updated review.PeerJ · 2025Review
- Social context affects sequence modification learning in birdsong.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Neural sensitivity to frequency changes in song structure in a high-order auditory area reflects tutor song memory in adult songbirds.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
- Genomic loss of GPR108 disrupts AAV transduction in birds.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- All-optical presynaptic plasticity induction by photoactivated adenylyl cyclase targeted to axon terminals.Cell reports methods · 2024Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Learning vocal behaviors, like speech and birdsong, is thought to rely on continued performance evaluation. Whether candidate performance evaluation circuits in the brain are sufficient to guide vocal learning is not known. Here, we test the sufficiency of VTA projections to the vocal basal ganglia in singing zebra finches, a songbird species that learns to produce a complex and stereotyped multi-syllabic courtship song during development. We optogenetically manipulate VTA axon terminals in singing birds contingent on how the pitch of an individual song syllable is naturally performed. We find that optical inhibition and excitation of VTA terminals are each sufficient to reliably guide learned changes in song. Inhibition and excitation have opponent effects on future performances of targeted song syllables, consistent with positive and negative reinforcement of performance outcomes. These findings define a central role for reinforcement mechanisms in learning vocalizations and demonstrate minimal circuit elements for learning vocal behaviors. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
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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.