Department of Physiology, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan.
Graduate School of Human Arts and Sciences, University of Human Arts and Sciences, Saitama, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 15;11(1):1618. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80726-y.
Male budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) are open-ended learners that can learn to produce new vocalisations as adults. We investigated neuronal activation in male budgerigars using the expression of the protein products of the immediate early genes zenk and c-fos in response to exposure to conspecific contact calls (CCs: that of the mate or an unfamiliar female) in three subregions (CMM, dNCM and vNCM) of the caudomedial pallium, a higher order auditory region. Significant positive correlations of Zenk expression were found between these subregions after exposure to mate CCs. In contrast, exposure to CCs of unfamiliar females produced no such correlations. These results suggest the presence of a CC-specific association among the subregions involved in auditory memory. The caudomedial pallium of the male budgerigar may have functional subdivisions that cooperate in the neuronal representation of auditory memory.
雄性虎皮鹦鹉（Melopsittacus undulatus）是一种开放式学习者，它们可以在成年后学习发出新的叫声。我们通过研究雄性虎皮鹦鹉在接触同种个体的鸣叫（CC：伴侣或陌生雌性的鸣叫）后，其立即早期基因 zenk 和 c-fos 的蛋白产物表达情况，来研究其大脑中后顶叶被盖区（caudomedial pallium）三个亚区（CMM、dNCM 和 vNCM）中的神经元激活情况。该脑区是一个高级听觉区域。研究结果发现，在接触到伴侣 CC 后，这些亚区之间的 Zenk 表达存在显著的正相关。相比之下，接触陌生雌性的 CC 则不会产生这种相关性。这些结果表明，在参与听觉记忆的亚区之间存在一种 CC 特异性的关联。雄性虎皮鹦鹉的后顶叶被盖区可能具有功能上的细分，这些细分在听觉记忆的神经元表现中合作。
