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Related Experiment Videos

Transcriptome changes associated with instructed learning in the barn owl auditory localization pathway.

Janet A Swofford1, William M DeBello

  • 1Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, Center for Neuroscience, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

Developmental Neurobiology
|May 26, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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Owls wearing prisms learn by rewiring brain maps, involving new synapses. Gene expression changes in the inferior colliculus (IC) and optic tectum (OT) reveal distinct molecular pathways for learning and instructive signals.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Molecular Biology
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • Experience-dependent learning, such as owls adapting to visual prism shifts, requires neural plasticity.
  • This adaptation involves re-calibrating the auditory space map in the midbrain, necessitating synaptic changes.
  • Understanding the molecular underpinnings of these plastic changes is crucial for comprehending learned behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate differential gene expression associated with instructed learning and synaptic plasticity in owls.
  • To identify specific genes regulated in the inferior colliculus (IC) and optic tectum (OT) during learning.
  • To correlate gene expression changes with synaptic remodeling and the generation of instructive signals.

Main Methods:

  • Long Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (longSAGE) was used to profile transcriptomes.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Owls were reared with prismatic or control lenses for 8-36 days.
  • Electrophysiological mapping quantified learning extent, and real-time PCR validated gene expression changes.

    • Main Results:

    • Twenty-two differentially expressed sequence tags were found in the IC and 36 in the OT.
    • Only four tags were regulated in both structures, suggesting largely independent gene regulation.
    • Ubiquitin was downregulated in the IC, and YWHAQ (14-3-3 protein) was upregulated in the OT.

    Conclusions:

    • Synaptic remodeling in the IC and instructive signal generation in the OT involve distinct gene expression profiles.
    • Downregulation of ubiquitin in the IC may relate to protein degradation and synaptogenesis.
    • Upregulation of YWHAQ in the OT suggests a role in delivering instructive information for learned behavior.