Description
Memory recall and guidance are essential for motor skill acquisition. Like humans learning to speak, male zebra finches learn to sing by first memorizing and then matching their vocalization to the tutor’s song (TS) during specific developmental periods. Yet, the neuroanatomical substrate supporting auditory-memory-guided sensorimotor learning has remained elusive. Here, using a whole-brain connectome analysis with activity-dependent viral expression, the authors identified a transient projection into the motor region, HVC, from neuronal ensembles responding to TS in the auditory forebrain, the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM),
in juveniles. Virally induced cell death of the juvenile, but not adult, TS-responsive NCM neurons impaired song learning. Moreover, isolation, which delays closure of the sensory, but not the motor, learning period, did not affect the decrease of projections into the HVC from the NCM TS-responsive neurons after the song learning period. Taken together, the results suggest that dynamic axonal pruning may regulate timely auditory-memory-guided vocal learning during development.
Funding Information
This work was supported by WPI-IRCN and a JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (#18H02531) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research
on Innovative Areas, ‘‘Dynamic Regulation of Brain Function by Scrap & Build System’’ (#17H05754 and #19H04743), ‘‘Hyper-Adaptability’’ (#22H04767), and ‘‘Adaptive Circuit Census’’ (#22H05515) to Y.Y.-S. and ‘‘Information Physics of Living Matters’’ (#19H05794) to Y.O.; a Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development grant (AMED; JP21dm0207112) to H.H.; and
the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST; JPMJCR20E2 and JPMJMS2025-14 to Y.O., JPMJFR204D and JPMJMS2024 to H.H., and
JPMJCR20E5 and JPMJMS2022-14 to M.K.).