Mark E Hauber, Matthew IM Louder, Simon C Griffith
The genetic and behavioral diversity of the zebra finch, both in the wild and in captivity, make it well-suited for neuroethological studies of vocal learning, culture, and social bonding.
Songbirds discriminate synthetic sounds composed of temporal patterns of clicks, which they transform into distinct ensemble or spatial patterns in successive stages of neural auditory processing.
Finch embryos are laid at an earlier stage than other avian embryos and contain cells with similar properties to pluripotent embryonic stem cells from mice.
Benjamin M Zemel, Alexander A Nevue ... Henrique von Gersdorff
Molecular and electrophysiological evidence shows that Kv3 subunits contribute critically to ultrashort action potential waveforms and high-frequency firing in large projection neurons in zebra finch motor nuclei controlling song production and somatic movements.
Call-based vocal communication of individually recorded zebra finches changes in social groups across reproductive stages and is related with successful egg laying.
Kirill Tokarev, Julia Hyland Bruno ... Henning U Voss
Co-evolution of sexually dimorphic reinforcement systems for song can explain the coexistence of the seemingly contradictory traits of gregariousness and monogamy in social songbirds.
Gene manipulation combined with behavior analysis reveals a role of miR-9 in modulating basal-ganglia-dependent developmental vocal learning and adult vocal performance via regulating the FOXP1/FOXP2 gene network and dopamine signaling in songbirds.