ZMBBI Motor Club: Neural and Motor Chunking during Vocal Learning in Songbirds

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ZMBBI Motor Club: Neural and Motor Chunking during Vocal Learning in Songbirds

October 29, 2020
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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Zoom

The talk will cover the latest paper by our own Emily Mackevicius, postdoctoral research scientist in Dmitriy Aronov's lab, from her work during her PhD with Michale Fee at MIT.

It will also set our songbird mood for the upcoming future motor club talk by new Columbia professor Vikram Gadagkar introducing us to his neuroscience in songbirds.

Title: Neural and Motor Chunking during Vocal Learning in Songbirds

When: Thursday, October 29th, 3pm

Where: Zoom https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/97887786090?pwd=cWxwVk1NNGhIZzdVMExQa0ZkSGZFUT09

Speakers: 

Emily Mackevicius, postdoctoral research scientist in Dmitriy Aronov's lab

Michael Happ, graduate student in Michale Fee's lab at MIT

Title: An avian cortical circuit for chunking tutor song syllables into simple vocal-motor units

Abstract: How are brain circuits constructed to achieve complex goals? The brains of young songbirds develop motor circuits that achieve the goal of imitating a specific tutor song to which they are exposed. Here, we set out to examine how song-generating circuits may be influenced early in song learning by a cortical region (NIf) at the interface between auditory and motor systems. Single-unit recordings reveal that, during juvenile babbling, NIf neurons burst at syllable onsets, with some neurons exhibiting selectivity for particular emerging syllable types. When juvenile birds listen to their tutor, NIf neurons are also activated at tutor syllable onsets, and are often selective for particular syllable types. We examine a simple computational model in which tutor exposure imprints the correct number of syllable patterns as ensembles in an interconnected NIf network. These ensembles are then reactivated during singing to train a set of syllable sequences in the motor network.

Recent Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18732-x

We hope to see you there!!

Motor Club Team

 

Zoom Details:

Vivek Athalye is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Motor Club on Neural and Motor Chunking
Time: Oct 29, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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Vivek R. Athalye