Uncovering a 'sensitive window' of multisensory and motor neuroplasticity in the cerebrum and cerebellum of male and female starling
- University of Antwerp, Belgium
- KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract
Traditionally, research unraveling seasonal neuroplasticity in songbirds has focused on the male song control system and testosterone. We longitudinally monitored the song behavior and neuroplasticity in male and female starlings during multiple photoperiods using Diffusion Tensor and Fixel-Based techniques. These exploratory data-driven whole-brain methods resulted in a population-based tractogram confirming microstructural sexual dimorphisms in the song control system. Furthermore, male brains showed hemispheric asymmetries in the pallium, whereas females had higher interhemispheric connectivity, which could not be attributed to brain size differences. Only females with large brains sing but differ from males in their song behavior by showing involvement of the hippocampus. Both sexes experienced multisensory neuroplasticity in the song control, auditory and visual system, and cerebellum, mainly during the photosensitive period. This period with low gonadal hormone levels might represent a 'sensitive window' during which different sensory and motor systems in the cerebrum and cerebellum can be seasonally re-shaped in both sexes.
Data availability
All MRI data have been deposited in Dryad (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h44j0zpj8). Source data files have been provided for Figures 3-11.
-
The photosensitive phase acts as a sensitive window for seasonal multisensory neuroplasticity in male and female starlingsDryad Digital Repository, 10.5061/dryad.h44j0zpj8.
Article and author information
Author details
Annemie Van der Linden
Funding
Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (PLASTOSCINE": P7/17")
- Annemie Van der Linden
Research Foundation - Flanders (G030213N)
- Annemie Van der Linden
Research Foundation - Flanders (115217N)
- Jasmien Orije
Research Foundation - Flanders (12R1917N)
- Elisabeth Jonckers
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: The housing and experimental procedures were performed in agreement with the European directives, Belgian and Flemish laws and were approved by the Committee on Animal Care and Use of the University of Antwerp, Belgium (2014-52).
Copyright
© 2021, Orije et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,111
- views
-
- 122
- downloads
-
- 7
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Uncovering a 'sensitive window' of multisensory and motor neuroplasticity in the cerebrum and cerebellum of male and female starling
eLife 10:e66777.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.66777
Further reading
-
- Neuroscience
Electrophysiology has proven invaluable to record neural activity, and the development of Neuropixels probes dramatically increased the number of recorded neurons. These probes are often implanted acutely, but acute recordings cannot be performed in freely moving animals and the recorded neurons cannot be tracked across days. To study key behaviors such as navigation, learning, and memory formation, the probes must be implanted chronically. An ideal chronic implant should (1) allow stable recordings of neurons for weeks; (2) allow reuse of the probes after explantation; (3) be light enough for use in mice. Here, we present the ‘Apollo Implant’, an open-source and editable device that meets these criteria and accommodates up to two Neuropixels 1.0 or 2.0 probes. The implant comprises a ‘payload’ module which is attached to the probe and is recoverable, and a ‘docking’ module which is cemented to the skull. The design is adjustable, making it easy to change the distance between probes, the angle of insertion, and the depth of insertion. We tested the implant across eight labs in head-fixed mice, freely moving mice, and freely moving rats. The number of neurons recorded across days was stable, even after repeated implantations of the same probe. The Apollo implant provides an inexpensive, lightweight, and flexible solution for reusable chronic Neuropixels recordings.
-
- Neuroscience
Most visual tasks involve looking for specific object features. But we also often perform property-based tasks where we look for specific property in an image, such as finding an odd item, deciding if two items are same, or if an object has symmetry. How do we solve such tasks? These tasks do not fit into standard models of decision making because their underlying feature space and decision process is unclear. Using well-known principles governing multiple object representations, we show that displays with repeating elements can be distinguished from heterogeneous displays using a property we define as visual homogeneity. In behavior, visual homogeneity predicted response times on visual search, same-different and symmetry tasks. Brain imaging during visual search and symmetry tasks revealed that visual homogeneity was localized to a region in the object-selective cortex. Thus, property-based visual tasks are solved in a localized region in the brain by computing visual homogeneity.
