TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward a song code
T2 - Evidence for a syllabic representation in the canary brain
AU - Ribeiro, Sidarta
AU - Cecchi, Guillermo A.
AU - Magnasco, Marcelo O.
AU - Mello, Claudio V.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank F. Nottebohm, A. Libchaber, and J. Hudspeth for their support, encouragement, and insightful comments; F. Doetsch, E. Jarvis, J. Hudspeth, C. Scharff, T. Wiesel, and three anonymous reviewers for their critical reading of this manuscript; E. Jarvis for sharing, at early stages of this project, data suggesting that song fragments elicit less ZENK expression than whole songs; D. Chialvo and R. Crist for fiery discussions; B. Sattie for technical assistance; Sandy Hills for secretarial help; and Daun Jackson, Helen Ecklund, and Sharon Sepe at The Rockefeller University Field Research Center for attentive animal care. This work was supported by Kluge and CNPq/Travel Fellowships (to S. R.), the NIDCD (grant #02853 to C. V. M.), and the Mathers Foundation. S. R. dedicates his effort in this paper to the memory of the late Professor Luís F. G. Labouriau.
PY - 1998/8
Y1 - 1998/8
N2 - We show that presentation of individual canary song syllables results in distinct expression patterns of the immediate-early gene ZENK in the caudomedial neostriatum (NCM) of adult canaries. Information on the spatial distribution and labeling of stained cells provides for a classification of ZENK patterns that (1) accords to the organization of stimuli into families, (2) preserves the stimuli intrafamily relationships, and (3) confers salience to natural over artificial stimuli, resulting in a nonclassical tonotopic map. Moreover, complex syllable maps cannot be reduced to any linear combinations of simple syllable maps. These properties arise from the collective response of NCM neurons to auditory stimuli, rather than from the behavior of single neurons. The syllabic representation described here may constitute an important step toward deciphering the rules of birdsong auditory representation.
AB - We show that presentation of individual canary song syllables results in distinct expression patterns of the immediate-early gene ZENK in the caudomedial neostriatum (NCM) of adult canaries. Information on the spatial distribution and labeling of stained cells provides for a classification of ZENK patterns that (1) accords to the organization of stimuli into families, (2) preserves the stimuli intrafamily relationships, and (3) confers salience to natural over artificial stimuli, resulting in a nonclassical tonotopic map. Moreover, complex syllable maps cannot be reduced to any linear combinations of simple syllable maps. These properties arise from the collective response of NCM neurons to auditory stimuli, rather than from the behavior of single neurons. The syllabic representation described here may constitute an important step toward deciphering the rules of birdsong auditory representation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032142916&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0032142916&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0896-6273(00)80545-0
DO - 10.1016/S0896-6273(00)80545-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 9728917
AN - SCOPUS:0032142916
SN - 0896-6273
VL - 21
SP - 359
EP - 371
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
IS - 2
ER -