Reminder: CDC seminar on WEDNESDAY

The next talk in the Cognitive Development Center seminar series at the CEU will be given by Johan J. Bolhuis (Behavioural Biology, Utrecht) Singing and the Brain: Neural Mechanisms of Birdsong Memory Date and time: Wednesday, 18 Nov 2009, 5.00 pm CEU Cognitive Development Center Hattyuhaz, Level 3, Hattyu u. 14., 1015 Budapest Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1015+Budapest,+Budapest,+Hattyu+utca+14,+Hung… Everyone is welcome to attend. Our seminars start on time and we may not be able to let latecomers in. Abstract: Singing and the Brain: Neural Mechanisms of Birdsong Memory Johan J. Bolhuis Behavioural Biology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Unlike non-human primates, parrots, hummingbirds and songbirds share with humans the capacity for vocal learning, a crucial factor in speech and language acquisition. There are strong similarities between vocal learning in human infants and songbirds. In both cases, the onset of vocalisation is preceded by a phase of auditory learning, which takes place during a sensitive period early in development. Similarly, in both cases there is a transitional period of early vocalisation which is called ‘babbling’ in humans and ‘subsong’ in birds. The avian ‘song system’, a network of interconnected brain nuclei, is the likely neural substrate for the second phase of sensorimotor learning. In contrast, the neural substrate of song memory acquired in the first phase is most probably localized outside the song system, notably in the caudomedial pallium, the avian equivalent of the human auditory association cortex. In zebra finch males, neuronal activation in this region correlates with the number of song elements that a male has learned from its tutor. Lesions to the pallium in zebra finch males impaired recognition of tutor song, but did not affect production of the bird’s own song. In addition, in young zebra finches that are still learning the tutor song, there is learning-related brain activation in the NCM but not in the song system. Thus, in both humans and songbirds the cognitive systems of vocal production and auditory recognition memory are subserved by distinct brain regions. Brief biography of Johan J. Bolhuis Johan J. Bolhuis is full professor of Behavioral Biology at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in Zoology at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, UK. He was Asscociate Professor at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He has served as an editor of Animal Behaviour, and as president of the Royal Dutch Zoological Society. His main research interests are in the behavioral, neural and cognitive mechanisms of learning, memory and development. Previously, he has worked on imprinting and the development of filial preferences in the domestic chick. His current research is focused on the mechanisms of song learning in zebra finches, on which he recently published a review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. In addition, he has a theoretical interest in the relationship between evolution, cognition, and the brain. He is editor of five books on animal behavior and cognitive neuroscience, and author of numerous papers on these issues. Together with Luc-Alain Giraldeau he is editor of the university textbook The Behavior of Animals.