Erich Jarvis

Jarvis, E. 1999. Windows into the molecular mechanisms of song learning and vocal communication. In: Adams, N.J. & Slotow, R.H. (eds) Proc. 22 Int. Ornithol. Congr., Durban: 524. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

The last 5 years have witnessed the emergence of molecular approaches to the study of vocal learning and communication in birds. The ultimate goals of these studies are: (1) To understand the cellular and molecular events that encode auditory and vocal memories. (2) To identify changes in gene expression that might explain the end of the sensitive period for song learning. (3) To see whether stimulus-dependent or behaviourally induced changes in gene expression can help explain the death and replacement of neurons observed in auditory and song system regions of the adult songbird brain I will show that playbacks of conspecific song and the act of singing regulate the expression of specific immediate early genes and genes that code for trophic substances that influence the survival and plasticity of neurons. These changes in gene expression occur in different parts of the brain depending on whether the bird is singing or listening to song and other contextual variables, raising the possibility that they are related to perceptual or motor learning.