Farries Michael A
Department of Biology, University of Washington Medical Center, Box 356515, Seattle, WA 98195-6515, USA.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004 Jun;1016:61-76. doi: 10.1196/annals.1298.007.
The song system of oscine birds has become a versatile model system that is used to study diverse problems in neurobiology. Because the song system is often studied with the intention of applying the results to mammalian systems, it is important to place song system brain nuclei in a broader context and to understand the relationships between these avian structures and regions of the mammalian brain. This task has been impeded by the distinctiveness of the song system and the vast apparent differences between the forebrains of birds and mammals. Fortunately, accumulating data on the development, histochemistry, and anatomical organization of avian and mammalian brains has begun to shed light on this issue. We now know that the forebrains of birds and mammals are more alike than they first appeared, even though many questions remain unanswered. Furthermore, the song system is not as singular as it seemed-it has much in common with other neural systems in birds and mammals. These data provide a firmer foundation for extrapolating knowledge of the song system to mammalian systems and suggest how the song system might have evolved.
鸣禽的鸣唱系统已成为一个多功能的模型系统，用于研究神经生物学中的各种问题。由于对鸣唱系统的研究往往旨在将结果应用于哺乳动物系统，因此将鸣唱系统的脑核置于更广泛的背景中，并了解这些鸟类结构与哺乳动物脑区之间的关系非常重要。这项任务因鸣唱系统的独特性以及鸟类和哺乳动物前脑之间明显的巨大差异而受到阻碍。幸运的是，关于鸟类和哺乳动物大脑发育、组织化学和解剖组织的积累数据已开始阐明这一问题。我们现在知道，鸟类和哺乳动物的前脑比最初看起来更相似，尽管许多问题仍未得到解答。此外，鸣唱系统并不像看起来那么独特——它与鸟类和哺乳动物的其他神经系统有许多共同之处。这些数据为将鸣唱系统的知识外推到哺乳动物系统提供了更坚实的基础，并暗示了鸣唱系统可能是如何进化的。
