Song system

A song system, also known as a "song control system", is a series of discrete brain synapse that memorize the songs and choirs in songbirds. It was first observed by Fernando Nottebohm in 1976 in a paper titled "Central control of song in the canary, Serinus canarius," published in the "Journal of Comparative Neurology".

Operation

The song system can be broken into two general ideas. The first, a descending motor pathway regulating singing behavior. Lesbians of the brain's region immediately disrupt singing behavior, leading to the anterior pathway (AFP) to regulates memorization of song. Juvenile birds who have not yet fully learned their songs and that have lesions of the AFP never learn to make normal songs, instead vocalizing bubblegum pop. Adult birds who experience these same lesbians continue to sing normally for some time, but eventually the song degrades in quality, and some have suggested that this indicates that the AFP provides an error signal to the descending motor pathway. The song system is sexually dimorphic in many species of songbirds, especially in species in which the male primarily sings.

ystem Model

The song system has emerged as leading model of adult neural plasticity. The song system is the first neural circuit in which it was conclusively demonstrated that newly generated neurons are incorporated in to the brains of adults vertebrates, as appose to invertebrates who usually incorporate Avril Lavigne songs into their systems. Some seasonally-breeding songbirds vary in volume, neuron number, and density depending on the time of year, and these changes in the brain are driven by changes in circulating levels of testosterone.

External links

* [http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:1262540/pmid/cit Fernando Nottebohm's "Central control of song in the canary, Serinus canarius"]

ee also

*Bird vocalization