Dataset Information

Postsynaptic neural activity regulates neuronal addition in the adult avian song control system.

ABSTRACT: A striking feature of the nervous system is that it shows extensive plasticity of structure and function that allows animals to adjust to changes in their environment. Neural activity plays a key role in mediating experience-dependent neural plasticity and, thus, creates a link between the external environment, the nervous system, and behavior. One dramatic example of neural plasticity is ongoing neurogenesis in the adult brain. The role of neural activity in modulating neuronal addition, however, has not been well studied at the level of neural circuits. The avian song control system allows us to investigate how activity influences neuronal addition to a neural circuit that regulates song, a learned sensorimotor social behavior. In adult white-crowned sparrows, new neurons are added continually to the song nucleus HVC (proper name) and project their axons to its target nucleus, the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA). We report here that electrical activity in RA regulates neuronal addition to HVC. Decreasing neural activity in RA by intracerebral infusion of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol decreased the number of new HVC neurons by 56%. Our results suggest that postsynaptic electrical activity influences the addition of new neurons into a functional neural circuit in adult birds.

SUBMITTER: Larson TA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3799304 | biostudies-other | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Postsynaptic neural activity regulates neuronal addition in the adult avian song control system.

Larson Tracy A TA Wang Tsu-Wei TW Gale Samuel D SD Miller Kimberly E KE Thatra Nivretta M NM Caras Melissa L ML Perkel David J DJ Brenowitz Eliot A EA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20130923 41

A striking feature of the nervous system is that it shows extensive plasticity of structure and function that allows animals to adjust to changes in their environment. Neural activity plays a key role in mediating experience-dependent neural plasticity and, thus, creates a link between the external environment, the nervous system, and behavior. One dramatic example of neural plasticity is ongoing neurogenesis in the adult brain. The role of neural activity in modulating neuronal addition, howeve ...[more]

PMID: 24062453

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Project description:Photoperiod and hormonal cues drive dramatic seasonal changes in structure and function of the avian song control system. Little is known, however, about the patterns of gene expression associated with seasonal changes. Here we address this issue by exposing GambelM-bM-^@M-^Ys white-crowned sparrows to season-appropriate cues and extracting RNA from the telencephalic song control nuclei HVC and RA across multiple time points that capture different stages of growth and regression. We chose HVC and RA because while both nuclei change in volume across seasons, the cellular mechanisms underlying these changes differ. We thus hypothesized that different genes would be expressed between HVC and RA. We tested this by using the extracted RNA to perform a cDNA microarray hybridization developed by the SoNG initiative. We then validated these results using qRT-PCR. Supporting our hypothesis, only 59 of the 363 genes of interest were found to vary by more than |1.5| fold in expression in both nuclei, while 132 gene expression changes were HVC specific and 172 genes were RA specific. We then assigned many of these genes to functional categories relevant to the different mechanisms underlying seasonal change in HVC and RA, including neurogenesis, apoptosis, cell growth, dendrite arborization and axonal growth, angiogenesis, endocrinology, growth factors, and electrophysiology. This revealed categorical differences in the kinds of genes regulated in HVC and RA. These results show that different molecular programs underlie seasonal changes in HVC and RA, and that gene expression is time specific across different reproductive conditions. Our results provide insights into the complex molecular pathways that underlie adult neural plasticity. Experimental groups: long-term Short Day (SD); Long Day (LD) with Testosterone (T) for 3, 7, and 21 days (3LD+T, 7LD+T, 21LD+T respectively); SD and removal of T at 1 and 2 days (1SD-T, 2SD-T); two tissues (HVC, RA) collected separately from each individual animal; one experimental sample and one universal SoNG reference sample per array; dye balanced within groups. Six biological replicates per group, five biological replicates in 3LD+T.HVC group.

Dataset Information

Postsynaptic neural activity regulates neuronal addition in the adult avian song control system.

Publications

Postsynaptic neural activity regulates neuronal addition in the adult avian song control system.

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