Auditory learning in an operant task with social reinforcement is dependent on neuroestrogen synthesis in the male songbird auditory cortex.

ABSTRACT: Animals continually assess their environment for cues associated with threats, competitors, allies, mates or prey, and experience is crucial for those associations. The auditory cortex is important for these computations to enable valence assignment and associative learning. The caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) is part of the songbird auditory association cortex and it is implicated in juvenile song learning, song memorization, and song perception. Like human auditory cortex, NCM is a site of action of estradiol (E2) and is enriched with the enzyme aromatase (E2-synthase). However, it is unclear how E2 modulates auditory learning and perception in the vertebrate auditory cortex. In this study we employ a novel, auditory-dependent operant task governed by social reinforcement to test the hypot

SUBMITTER: Macedo-Lima M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7198363 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature