Male songbirds turn off their self-evaluation systems when they sing to females
Cornell University
Event Information
Host
Transatlantic Systems Neuro
Duration
70 minutes
Abstract
Attending to mistakes while practicing alone provides opportunities for learning but self-evaluation during audience-directed performance could distract from ongoing execution. It remains unknown how animals switch between practice and performance modes, and how evaluation systems process errors across distinct performance contexts. We recorded from striatal-projecting dopamine (DA) neurons as male songbirds transitioned from singing alone to singing female-directed courtship song. In the presence of the female, singing-related performance error signals were reduced or gated off and DA neurons were instead phasically activated by female vocalizations. Mesostriatal DA neurons can thus dynamically change their tuning with changes in social context.
Topics
Related Seminars
Deciphering the Dynamics of the Unconscious Brain under General Anesthesia
Stanford Neurosciences Seminar Series talk by Emery Brown (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Neuroscience Statistics Research Lab) on deciphering the dynamics of the unconscious brain under…
Engineering human myelination in vitro: Mechanobiologically compatible platforms for CNS drug discovery
UCL Department of Neuroinflammation Seminar by Professor Emad Moeendarbary (Professor of Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology, UCL Mechanical Engineering) on how biophysical factors such as substrate…
Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Christopher Harvey, PhD, Harvard University
Picower Institute Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition featuring Christopher Harvey, PhD, of Harvard University, held in Singleton Auditorium (46-3002) at MIT Building 46, 43 Vassar Street.
Related Job Opportunities
PhD Studentship: Mitochondrial Metabolism and Novel Therapeutic Strategies for Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) (Fixed Term)
Supervisors: Professor Andrew Murray, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge Dr Ross Lindsay, Novo Nordisk Funding: Fully funded PhD studentship (Home/UK…
Research Associate (Fixed Term)
We seek a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to join the laboratory of Professor Kathy Niakan. We are based in the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research (LCTR), in the Department of…
Research Assistant/Associate (Fixed Term)
Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research associate position to study the neural mechanisms of visual learning in mice, in the laboratories of Professor Ole Paulsen and Dr Jasper Poort…