Laboratory for Vocal Behavior Mechanisms
Research Areas
| Learning to vocalize is crucially important to humans. Songbirds are among the few animals that share this ability. This lab studies song learning as an example of a complex learned behavior, and aims to characterize the neural networks and processing mechanisms that allow this learning. As is true for human speech, birdsong in many species is most easily learned when the animal is very young. We anatomical and physiological techniques to investigate the cellular and molecular basis of this critical period for vocal learning. In addition to studies on vocal learning, we study the way in which social information strongly influences brain activity and behavior during song communication. |  Laboratory Head Neal A. HESSLER (Ph.D.)  |
Research Subjects
| (1) | Influence of social context on vocal behavior |
| (2) | Circuits and physiological processes underlying vocal learning |
| (3) | Cellular and molecular bases of the critical period for vocal learning |
List of Selected Publications
| (1) | Hara, E., Kubikova, L., Hessler, N.A., and Jarvis, E.D.: "Assessing visual requirements for social context-dependent activation of the songbird song system." Proc Biol Sci. Jan 22;276(1655):279-89. (2009) |
| (2) | Huang, YC., and Hessler, N.A.: "Social modulation during songbird courtship potentiates midbrain dopaminergic neurons." PLoS ONE. Oct 1;3(10):e3281(2008) |
| (3) | Hara, E., Kubikova, L., Hessler, N.A., and Jarvis, E.D.: "Role of the midbrain dopaminergic system in modulation of vocal brain activation by social context." European Journal of Neuroscience, 25(11), 3406-3416(2007) |
| (4) | Wang, J. and Hessler, N.A.: "Coordination of presynaptic and postsynaptic maturation in a zebra finch forebrain motor control nucleus during song learning." European Journal of Neuroscience 24(10), 2859-2869. (2006) |
| (5) | Yanagihara, S., and Hessler, N.A.: "Modulation of singing-related activity in the songbird ventral tegmental area by social context." European Journal of Neuroscience, 24(12), 3619-3627(2006) |
| (6) | George, I. A., Hara, E., and Hessler, N.A.: "Behavioral and neural lateralization of vision in courtship singing of the zebra finch." Journal of Neurobiology, 66(10), 1164-1173, (2006) |
| (7) | George, I. A., Hara, E., and Hessler, N. A.: "Social behavior modulates songbird interpeduncular nucleus function." NeuroReport, 16(5), 445-449 (2005). |
| (8) | Solis, M.M., Brainard, M.S., Hessler, N.A., and Doupe, A.J.: "Song selectivity and sensorimotor signals in vocal learning and production." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 97(22), 11836-42 (2000). |
| (9) | Hessler, N.A., and Doupe, A.J.: "Singing-related neural activity in a dorsal forebrain-basal ganglia circuit of adult zebra finches." J.Neurosci., 19(23), 10461-10481 (1999). |
| (10) | Hessler, N.A. and Doupe, A.J.: "Social context modulates singing-related neural activity in the songbird forebrain." Nature Neuroscience, 2, 209-211 (1999). |