Stable Sequential Activity Underlying the Maintenance of a Precisely Executed Skilled Behavior.

ABSTRACT: A vast array of motor skills can be maintained throughout life. Do these behaviors require stability of individual neuron tuning or can the output of a given circuit remain constant despite fluctuations in single cells? This question is difficult to address due to the variability inherent in most motor actions studied in the laboratory. A notable exception, however, is the courtship song of the adult zebra finch, which is a learned, highly precise motor act mediated by orderly dynamics within premotor neurons of the forebrain. By longitudinally tracking the activity of excitatory projection neurons during singing using two-photon calcium imaging, we find that both the number and the precise timing of song-related spiking events remain nearly identical over the span of several weeks to mont

SUBMITTER: Katlowitz KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6094941 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature