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. 2002 May 1;22(9):3776–3787. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.22-09-03776.2002

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Diagram of the oscine song system in a schematic parasagittal section of the avian brain. The motor pathway begins with HVc (used as a proper name, not an abbreviation; Fortune and Margoliash, 1995), which projects to the nucleus robustus of the archistriatum (RA) (Nottebohm et al., 1976). RA projects to several brainstem nuclei concerned with respiration and vocalization (Nottebohm et al., 1976; Wild, 1993) that are not shown explicitly in this figure. HVc also projects to the AFP, beginning with area X (Nottebohm et al., 1976). Area X projects to the medial portion of the dorsolateral anterior thalamic nucleus (DLM) (Okuhata and Saito, 1987; Bottjer et al., 1989), DLM projects to lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (LMAN) (Bottjer et al., 1989), and LMAN completes the circuit by projecting to RA (Nottebohm et al., 1982) and to area X (Nixdorf-Bergweiler et al., 1995; Vates and Nottebohm, 1995). Most of the forebrain song system nuclei are in the pallium (HVc, RA, and LMAN) or thalamus (DLM) and have glutamatergic projection neurons. Area X, however, is a component of the avian basal ganglia (shown in gray) and has GABAergic projection neurons.