Adult zebra finches rehearse highly variable song patterns during sleep.

ABSTRACT: Brain activity during sleep is fairly ubiquitous and the best studied possible function is a role in memory consolidation, including motor memory. One suggested mechanism of how neural activity effects these benefits is through reactivation of neurons in patterns resembling those of the preceding experience. The specific patterns of motor activation replayed during sleep are largely unknown for any system. Brain areas devoted to song production in the songbird brain exhibit spontaneous song-like activity during sleep, but single cell neural recordings did not permit detection of the specific song patterns. We have now discovered that this sleep activation can be detected in the muscles of the vocal organ, thus providing a unique window into song-related brain activity at night. We show tha

SUBMITTER: Young BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5694654 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature