Wood William E, Osseward Peter J, Roseberry Thomas K, Perkel David J
Graduate Program in Neurobiology & Behavior, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2013 Dec 2;8(12):e82327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082327. eCollection 2013.
Complex motor skills are more difficult to perform at certain points in the day (for example, shortly after waking), but the daily trajectory of motor-skill error is more difficult to predict. By undertaking a quantitative analysis of the fundamental frequency (FF) and amplitude of hundreds of zebra finch syllables per animal per day, we find that zebra finch song follows a previously undescribed daily oscillation. The FF and amplitude of harmonic syllables rises across the morning, reaching a peak near mid-day, and then falls again in the late afternoon until sleep. This oscillation, although somewhat variable, is consistent across days and across animals and does not require serotonin, as animals with serotonergic lesions maintained daily oscillations. We hypothesize that this oscillation is driven by underlying physiological factors which could be shared with other taxa. Song production in zebra finches is a model system for studying complex learned behavior because of the ease of gathering comprehensive behavioral data and the tractability of the underlying neural circuitry. The daily oscillation that we describe promises to reveal new insights into how time of day affects the ability to accomplish a variety of complex learned motor skills.
复杂的运动技能在一天中的某些时段（例如醒来后不久）更难执行，但运动技能误差的每日变化轨迹更难预测。通过对每只动物每天数百个斑胸草雀音节的基频（FF）和振幅进行定量分析，我们发现斑胸草雀的歌声呈现出一种此前未被描述过的每日振荡。和声音节的FF和振幅在整个上午逐渐上升，在接近中午时达到峰值，然后在傍晚时分再次下降直至睡眠。这种振荡虽然有些变化，但在不同的日子和不同的动物之间是一致的，并且不需要血清素，因为血清素损伤的动物仍保持每日振荡。我们推测这种振荡是由潜在的生理因素驱动的，这些因素可能与其他分类群共享。由于易于收集全面的行为数据以及潜在神经回路的易处理性，斑胸草雀的歌声产生是研究复杂学习行为的一个模型系统。我们所描述的每日振荡有望揭示关于一天中的时间如何影响完成各种复杂学习运动技能能力的新见解。
