The avian song control system provides a model for many aspects of neural integration, plasticity, and learning. Songbirds learn their songs by imitating external models, and the major brain nuclei involved in vocal behavior have been identified. Dr. David Vicario will employ physiological, anatomical, and behavioral techniques to study the development, organization and operational principles of this system, conceived of as a circuit assembled from cellular components. The main experimental theme will be the initiation of learned vocalizations and their assembly out of respiratory and syringeal components. The results of this work will help elucidate how learned and unlearned elements are combined to produce a complex behavior and how they are represented in the brain.
