Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: GABRIELA PEIXOTO BARBALHO

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : GABRIELA PEIXOTO BARBALHO
DATE: 05/03/2021
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: GOOGLE MEET
TITLE:

The effects of social deprivation and reduced singing on song discrimination in zebra finches 

KEY WORDS:

Zebra Finches, Humans, Social Experience, Motor Practice, Discrimination 

PAGES: 88
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Biologia Geral
SUMMARY:

Songbirds are considered one of the best animal models to investigate the neurobiological basis of vocal learning. As in humans, these animals have distinct phases for vocal learning, that are influenced by social and motor experiences. More specifically, social deprivation in songbirds can generate deficits in the individual's vocal production, whereas singing prevention delays vocal maturation. However, it is not completely clear whether limited experience during development can affect the animal's auditory discrimination abilities, a well known phenomenon in humans. To address this question, we manipulate the social and motor practice experiences in zebra finches, the mostly widely used songbird species. We first confirmed that our manipulation altered vocal learning, without grossly affecting development. More precisely, socially deprived animals showed abnormal songs, typical of animals lacking a song model. Meover, juvenile animals where singing practice was limited continued to produce immature vocalizations as adults. Notably, behavioral experiments demonstrated that control animals, i.e. animals with normal social experiences, showed a lower performance in auditory discrimination tasks compared to isolated and juvenile animals. Conversely, singing-limited did not differ from control birds. These results suggest that early development auditory experiences may influence the discriminatory capacity in adult zebra finches, while vocal practice appears to have little influence in the performance of adult birds. That is, birds that are exposed to normal social experience during postnatal development may have diminished ability to discriminate conspecific songs. Such interpretation is in agreement with the increased specificity observed in auditory neurons, and would parallel the deficits observed as speech acquisition progresses in humans. 

BANKING MEMBERS:
Interno - 2394627 - EDUARDO BOUTH SEQUERRA
Interna - 1976236 - EMELIE KATARINA SVAHN LEAO
Presidente - 2183828 - TARCISO ANDRE FERREIRA VELHO