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A longer birdsong-learning window evolves in response to sexual selection for song complexity and is associated with faster evolution of song performance characteristics.

The cerebellum sends a functional input to the song-related basal ganglia via the thalamus in songbirds that can modify premotor activity, and it participates to song learning in juvenile birds.

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.

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.

The ability to quickly re-acquire a previously lost motor skill is associated with lasting synaptic changes in the brain circuit that controls that motor skill.

Teaching signals from "tutor" brain areas should be adapted to the plasticity mechanisms in "student" areas to achieve efficient learning in two-stage systems such as the vocal control circuit of the songbird.

By demonstrating song learning-related synaptic strengthening and pruning in the vocal control circuits of songbirds, and showing how such changes can reduce the sensitivity of the circuit to ‘noisy’ inputs, a simple neural circuit mechanism for regulating motor variability during motor skill learning is identified.

In juvenile songbirds, neural sequences pre-exist tutor exposure, and the process of learning a new song may make use of existing neural sequences as a stable substrate for new behavioral changes.

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.

Intracellular recordings in singing birds and images of synapses in deafened birds provide insights into the neural circuitry that enables songbirds to fine-tune their songs.