Most of our motor skills are not innately programmed, but are learned by a combination of
motor exploration and performance evaluation, suggesting that they proceed through a …

Songbirds, much like humans, learn their vocal behavior, and must be able to hear both
themselves and others to do so. Studies of the brain areas involved in singing and song …

The song system of oscine birds has frequently been presented as a model system for motor
learning in vertebrates. This practice has been bolstered by the growing recognition that one …

Speech has long been thought of as a uniquely defining characteristic of humans. Yet song
birds, like humans, communicate using learned signals (song, speech) that are acquired …

In most songbirds, vocal learning occurs through two experience-dependent phases,
culminating in a reduction of behavioral plasticity called song crystallization. At ends of …

The anterior forebrain pathway (AFP) of the oscine song system is essential for song
learning but not song production. Most cells recorded in this serially connected pathway …

Young songbirds produce vocal “babbling,” and the variability of their songs is thought to
underlie a process of trial-and-error vocal learning. It is known that this exploratory variability …

Vocal learning in songbirds provides an excellent model for sensorimotor learning in
vertebrates, with an accessible, well-defined behavior and discrete neural substrate. The …

Auditory neurons of the anterior forebrain (AF) of zebra finches become selective for song
during song learning. In adults, these neurons respond more to the bird's own song (BOS) …

The anterior forebrain pathway (AFP) in the passerine song system is essential for song
learning but not for song production. Several lines of evidence suggest that area X, a major …