Biology subjects

Hamaide, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Hamaide, J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Season-dependent processing of innate conspecific vocalizations in the male and female European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Avian innate nestling begging calls are similar to human infant cries in the behavioral response they elicit. However, it remains unknown whether the auditory processing of innate begging calls changes in seasonal songbirds from non-breeding to breeding season when hormonal neuromodulation of the auditory forebrain occurs. An fMRI experiment was set up to expose male and female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) to recordings of seasonal conspecific nestling begging calls in the breeding and non-breeding season. This response was compared with their response to conspecific warble motifs and artificial pure tones, both proven seasonally invariable at least in the male starlings neural response. Our results demonstrate significant seasonal variation in auditory forebrain responses exclusively elicited by begging calls and not by the applied control stimuli. Right Field L and the Caudomedial Nidopallium (NCM) seemed, irrespective of season or sex, more sensitive in response to begging than to control stimuli. A seasonal differential response specifically to begging calls was found in both sexes in a ventral midsagittal region of NCM. Our findings thereby support the functional fine-tuning of vocal communications between sender and receiver in a breeding context for innate vocalizations and are in line with the bi-parenting behavior in this species.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

The photosensitive phase acts as a sensitive window for seasonal multisensory neuroplasticity in male and female starlings

Traditionally, research unraveling seasonal neuroplasticity in songbirds has focused on the male song control system and testosterone. We longitudinally monitored the song and neuroplasticity in male and female starlings during multiple photoperiods using Diffusion Tensor and Fixel-Based techniques. These exploratory data-driven whole-brain methods resulted in a population-based tractogram uncovering microstructural sexual dimorphisms in the song control system and beyond. Male brains showed microstructural hemispheric asymmetries, whereas females had higher interhemispheric connectivity, which could not be attributed to brain size differences. Only females with large brains sing but differ from males in their song behavior by showing involvement of the hippocampus. Both sexes experienced multisensory neuroplasticity in the song control, auditory and visual system, and the cerebellum, mainly during the photosensitive period. This period with low gonadal hormones might represent a sensitive window during which different sensory and motor systems in telencephalon and cerebellum can be seasonally re-shaped in both sexes.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2018

Predict future learning accuracy by the structural properties of the brain, an in vivo longitudinal MRI study in songbirds

Human speech and bird song are acoustically complex communication signals that are learned by imitation during a sensitive period early in life. Although the neural networks indispensable for song learning are well established, it remains unclear which neural circuitries differentiate good from bad song copiers. By combining in vivo structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging with song analyses in juvenile male zebra finches during song learning and beyond, we discovered that song imitation accuracy correlates with the structural architecture of four distinct brain areas, none of which pertain to the song control system. Furthermore, the structural properties of a secondary auditory area in the left hemisphere, are capable to predict future song copying accuracy, already at the earliest stages of learning, before initiating vocal practicing. These findings appoint novel brain regions important for song learning outcome and inform that ultimate performance in part depends on factors experienced before vocal practicing.

neuroscience↗