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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2011 Dec 1;22(2):320–327. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2011.11.006

Figure 3. Early auditory experience with a tutor song model rapidly affects vocal premotor neurons.

Figure 3

A) Auditory experience of a tutor song rapidly alters dendritic spines on HVC projection neurons. Top panel: representative in vivo multiphoton images of an HVC neuron from a juvenile bird show that tutor song experience increases spine density (blue arrowhead indicates a spine that was stable over the first day of tutoring; green arrowheads indicate spines that were gained following tutoring). Bottom panel: levels of spine turnover in a juvenile’s HVC decrease rapidly after the tutor begins to sing. Adapted with permission from [53••]. B) Initial tutor song experience drives increased bursting activity in RA neurons (top panel), the temporal pattern of which depends on the tutor song heard (bottom panel). Adapted with permission from [57•].