Many features of bird song have made it a useful model for research on important problems in behavioral neurobiology and have engaged the attention of researchers on species-typical behavior, communication, behavioral development, central sensory processing, motor learning, sensorimotor control, neurogenesis, and neuronal plasticity. Recent developments involving anatomical, neurophysiological, neuroendocrine, molecular, and behavioral techniques, have further increased the utility of the song system model. Funds are requested towards the support of a Conference on the Behavioral Neurobiology of Bird Song, to be held at Hunter College, New York City, December 12-14, 2002 under the joint sponsorship of the Hunter Gene Center (RCMI) and the Biopsychology Doctoral Program, Hunter College (CUNY). The Conference will bring together a substantial proportion of the major researchers in this area, together with a selected group of potential future leaders for a program of presentations, roundtables, workshop and discussions of current issues in this highly productive area of neuroscience. Plans for the involvement of women and minorities have been described in this application, as have plans for the production of a volume based upon Conference proceedings. The costs of the Conference will be shared among RCMI, NIH and NSF, with the RCMI covering the costs associated with organizing, publicizing and running the Conference and preparing proceedings for publication, as well as contributing to support of participants. The NIH contribution will be used to increase the breadth of Conference coverage and the diversity of participants. No such Conference has been held within recent memory and this Conference should help provide a record of the current state of the field and set the directions of future research.
