Dual pre-motor contribution to songbird syllable variation

Many forms of learning, including songbird vocal learning, rely on the brain's ability to use pre-motor variation and sensory feedback to guide behavior toward a specific target or goal. In the vocal control system of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) the pre-motor mechanisms of vocal variation are thought to be vested primarily in a neural pathway that includes the basal ganglia. A second circuit that includes avian analogues of mammalian pre-motor and motor cortex (the vocal motor pathway) generates the patterned structure of learned adult song. Here, we tested the ability of the basal ganglia pathway to generate pre-motor vocal variation within the spectral and temporal dimensions of zebra finch song structure. In adult birds, ablation of the basal ganglia pathway significantly reduced the spectral and temporal dispersion of individual song syllables, with the exception of syllable pitch, where the reduction was not statistically significant when compared against surgical controls. We found a similar pattern of results using longitudinal comparisons (juvenile vs adult) to isolate the contribution of the basal ganglia pathway to spectral dispersion in populations of developing song syllables--variation in syllable pitch was significantly smaller than in all other measured spectral features. The results indicate that pre-motor variation generated by the basal ganglia pathway may be sufficient to adjust vocal output toward highly acoustically dispersed targets of imitation, but suggest that complete acquisition of the pronounced variation in syllable pitch that characterizes adult song will necessitate a gradual developmental interaction between the basal ganglia and vocal motor pathways.