Project Overview
Exploring the neural circuits that underlie the song-entangled beat gestures in a songbird
Department(s)
Neuroscience
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Abstract
The goals of this research project are to identify the neural cirucits that regulate the production of the co-song gestures in a songbird, the zebra finch. When we speak, we make speech-entangled hand or head gestures to emphasize specific words, intention, and/ or express our emotion. Liu lab has previously discoved the singing of songbirds also comes with song-entangled gesture to emphasize specific syllables and express the motivation. However, the neural circuits that underlie the production of co-speech gesture, in humans and songbirds, remains unknown. Songbirds provide an excellent model to explore this question due to its unique traits of vocal learning and cortical control of rhythmic movement, which are remarkablely parallels to human speech learning. Here we use a songbird, the zebra finches, to explore the neural circuits of co-song gestures by using molecular markers and neural activity-dependent gene expression study. Students will also perform behavioral experiments and data analysis.
Student Qualifications
Neur170 or Bio182
Number of Student Researchers
3 students
Project Length
8 weeks weeks
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