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Researchers see evidence of memory in the songbird brain
Date:6/26/2009

lls. Any surge or drop in the number of mRNAs in brain cells after a stimulus offers clues to how the brain is responding.

Some genes were upregulated within 30 minutes of exposure to a new song, the researchers found, and these included a lot of transcription factors that modulate the activity of other genes. Many other genes were downregulated, including those that code for ion channel proteins, which allow ions to flow into the cell. This could be one way that the brain dampens its response to a powerful stimulus, protecting itself from too much disturbance, Clayton said.

"Whenever something unexpected and different comes along, such as the song of a new bird in the neighborhood, it's going to deform the listening bird's neural network," Clayton said. "And so the system has to basically absorb some of that, make some changes and not be overwhelmed by it. If you push the system around too much, cells die."

On the other hand, if the system were completely resistant to disturbance, no memory would form, he said.

Twenty-four hours after the initial stimulus, the pattern of activated genes was entirely different from that of the initial response, regardless of whether the bird heard the song again on day two or not, Clayton said. Those genes that were originally upregulated or downregulated had returned to baseline, and a new network of genes was engaged. A major focus of this new network appears to be the regulation of energy metabolism. This suggests a lot is still going on in the brain, Clayton said.

"It's like we've lifted the hood and we're seeing that these things are just chugging away," Clayton said. "The bird had this one day of experience and a day later the brain is in a different state. It's still in high gear. It's still processing stuff. It's still reverberating and echoing."


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Contact: Diana Yates
diya@illinois.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Source:Eurekalert  

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Researchers see evidence of memory in the songbird brain
Researchers see evidence of memory in the songbird brain