The experiments described in this thesis employ local lentiviral knockdowns in brain areas of female zebra finches followed by behavioural assays consisting of preference and Go/Nogo tasks.... Show moreThe experiments described in this thesis employ local lentiviral knockdowns in brain areas of female zebra finches followed by behavioural assays consisting of preference and Go/Nogo tasks. Ultimately, the targeted brain areas are extracted for gene expression analyses.The findings suggest that localised reduction of FoxP1 expression in HVC or CMM of female zebra finches does not impair the establishment or maintenance of auditory memories of conspecific song nor the females’ ability to discriminate or categorise auditory stimuli based on spectral or sequential features. Females which received a knockdown of FoxP1 in HVC as adults requested fewer familiar and unfamiliar playbacks and had a lower preference for familiar song than their matched controls. This might suggest that FoxP1 contributes to motivational behaviours in female zebra finches.Gene expression analyses links FoxP1 to pathways that have previously also been associated with FOXP2 in mammals including retinoic acid signalling and the SLIT-ROBO signalling cascade. Altered energy metabolism in different brain areas might also contribute to the observed phenotypes.Ultimately, the results presented in this thesis suggest implications of the transcription factor FoxP1 beyond vocal motor learning which need to be investigated in future studies. Show less
Animal models, songbirds particularly, are increasingly used to study the human capacity for speech and language. In the light of understanding both language evolution and individual language... Show moreAnimal models, songbirds particularly, are increasingly used to study the human capacity for speech and language. In the light of understanding both language evolution and individual language acquisition these models are highly valuable, provided that they are studied within a valid comparative framework. In the past few decades, non-invasive methods such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Near-InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS) have become available for human as well as animal brain research. In the studies discussed in this thesis, fMRI is employed to unravel the neural correlates of vocal learning in the human and songbird brain. Specifically, fMRI in both songbirds and humans is used to study the neural mechanisms underlying birdsong learning and human artificial grammar learning. In a series of fMRI studies investigating these neural mechanisms in adult and juvenile zebra finches and human adults, this thesis compares the neural substrates of song learning in birds with those of language learning in humans. Studies in both species show correlations between behavioral learning of song or speech and neural activity. These results contribute to the songbird model for human vocal learning. Show less
