Tailoring instructive experience to individual genetic biases improves vocal learning outcomes across genetic backgrounds in the Bengalese finch.

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.

A forebrain nucleus contributes specifically to the variability of syllable sequencing in songs of Bengalese finches, a songbird with complex syntactic song structure.

The neuromodulator acetylcholine contributes to state-dependent modulation of motor vigor and variability by direct action on songbird premotor cortex, bypassing basal ganglia circuitry.

A novel, non-auditory learning paradigm reveals that songbirds can modify their vocal output based on somatosensory signals and that a common set of brain pathways underlies both this form of vocal learning and auditory-guided vocal learning.

Songbirds can use arbitrary visual cues to immediately, flexibly and adaptively control syntax of learned song vocalizations in a manner that parallels human cognitive control over syllable sequencing in speech.

Multi-area recordings reveal how communication between two songbird brain areas conveys a top-down bias that adaptively modifies ongoing singing to support context-specific vocal learning.

Basal ganglia gene coexpression patterns shift across the sensorimotor critical period for vocal learning.

Large-scale gene expression analysis of the songbird brain identifies the molecular and cellular features of vocal motor circuits that are altered by the loss of hearing.