Variability in action: Contributions of a songbird cortical-basal ganglia circuit to vocal motor learning and control

Woolley, Sarah C.; Kao, Mimi H.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.10.010

Cited by 70 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…This especially refers to learning. For instance, juvenile songbirds were found to express larger vocal variability than adults [11], which was considered to be a key promoter of learning [12]. In the human motor domain, the idea that variability is relevant for learning was tested in a recent experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motor Experts Care about Consistency and Are Reluctant to Change Motor Outcome

Kast¹,

Leukel²

2016

PLoS ONE

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Thousands of hours of physical practice substantially change the way movements are performed. The mechanisms underlying altered behavior in highly-trained individuals are so far little understood. We studied experts (handballers) and untrained individuals (novices) in visuomotor adaptation of free throws, where subjects had to adapt their throwing direction to a visual displacement induced by prismatic glasses. Before visual displacement, experts expressed lower variability of motor errors than novices. Experts adapted and de-adapted slower, and also forgot the adaptation slower than novices. The variability during baseline was correlated with the learning rate during adaptation. Subjects adapted faster when variability was higher. Our results indicate that experts produced higher consistency of motor outcome. They were still susceptible to the sensory feedback informing about motor error, but made smaller adjustments than novices. The findings of our study relate to previous investigations emphasizing the importance of action exploration, expressed in terms of outcome variability, to facilitate learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motor Experts Care about Consistency and Are Reluctant to Change Motor Outcome

Kast¹,

Leukel²

2016

PLoS ONE

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“…Movement variability is an integral part of motor learning [29,[42][43][44]. We can modulate the degree of variability used during motor learning, as either part of a reward [45] or error-based learning process [46], and this modulation in variability eventually decreases once we master a new motor skill [47][48][49].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods for Measuring Swallowing Pressure Variability Using High-Resolution Manometry

Jones

Meisner

Broadfoot

et al. 2018

Front. Appl. Math. Stat.

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Any movement performed repeatedly will be executed with inter-trial variability. Oropharyngeal swallowing is a complex sensorimotor action, and swallow-to-swallow variability can have consequences that impact swallowing safety. Our aim was to determine an appropriate method to measure swallowing pressure waveform variability. An ideal variability metric must be sensitive to known deviations in waveform amplitude, duration, and overall shape, without being biased by waveforms that have both positive and sub-atmospheric pressure profiles. Through systematic analysis of model waveforms, we found a coefficient of variability (CV) parameter on waveforms adjusted such that the overall mean was 0 to be best suited for swallowing pressure variability analysis. We then investigated pharyngeal swallowing pressure variability using high-resolution manometry data from healthy individuals to assess impacts of waveform alignment, pharyngeal region, and number of swallows investigated. The alignment that resulted in the lowest overall swallowing pressure variability was when the superior-most sensor in the upper esophageal sphincter (UES) reached half its maximum pressure. Pressures in the tongue base region of the pharynx were least variable and pressures in the hypopharynx region were most variable. Sets of 3-10 consecutive swallows had no overall difference in variability, but sets of two swallows resulted in significantly less variability than the other dataset sizes. This study identified variability in swallowing pressure waveform shape throughout the pharynx in healthy adults; we discuss implications for swallowing motor control.

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“…Because LMAN is known to control the level of variability in acoustic structure of song syllables 4, 30, 56 , and these are more variable in juveniles than adults, we measured the overall degree of song syllable acoustic similarity pre versus post-surgery (a measure that summarizes multiple acoustic features into one value; see methods). There was a very small (mean change from pre to post = 1.10 ± 0.36), but significant decrease in the control group in the degree of percentage similarity from one song motif to another song motif (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overexpression of human NR2B receptor subunit in LMAN causes stuttering and song sequence changes in adult zebra finches

Chakraborty

Chen

Fridel

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) learn to produce songs in a manner reminiscent of spoken language development in humans. One candidate gene implicated in influencing learning is the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subtype 2B glutamate receptor (NR2B). Consistent with this idea, NR2B levels are high in the song learning nucleus LMAN (lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium) during juvenile vocal learning, and decreases to low levels in adults after learning is complete and the song becomes more stereotyped. To test for the role of NR2B in generating song plasticity, we manipulated NR2B expression in LMAN of adult male zebra finches by increasing its protein levels to those found in juvenile birds, using a lentivirus containing the full-length coding sequence of the human NR2B subunit. We found that increased NR2B expression in adult LMAN induced increases in song sequence diversity and slower song tempo more similar to juvenile songs, but also increased syllable repetitions similar to stuttering. We did not observe these effects in control birds with overexpression of NR2B outside of LMAN or with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in LMAN. Our results suggest that low NR2B subunit expression in adult LMAN is important in conserving features of stereotyped adult courtship song.

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Variability in action: Contributions of a songbird cortical-basal ganglia circuit to vocal motor learning and control

Cited by 70 publications

References 87 publications

Motor Experts Care about Consistency and Are Reluctant to Change Motor Outcome

Motor Experts Care about Consistency and Are Reluctant to Change Motor Outcome

Methods for Measuring Swallowing Pressure Variability Using High-Resolution Manometry

Overexpression of human NR2B receptor subunit in LMAN causes stuttering and song sequence changes in adult zebra finches

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