Genetic variation interacts with experience to determine interindividual differences in learned song.

ABSTRACT: Learning reflects the influence of experience on genetically determined circuitry, but little is known about how experience and genetics interact to determine complex learned phenotypes. Here, we used vocal learning in songbirds to study how experience and genetics contribute to interindividual differences in learned song. Previous work has established that such differences in song within a species depend on learning, but in principle some of these differences could also depend on genetic variation. We focused on song tempo, a learned and quantifiable feature that is controlled by central neural circuitry. To identify genetic contributions to tempo we computer-tutored juvenile Bengalese finches (Lonchura striata domestica) from different genetic backgrounds with synthetic songs in w

SUBMITTER: Mets DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5777042 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature