Meeting Abstract
Vocal learning is a rare trait found in only a few lineages of mammals, including humans and three taxa of birds: parrots, songbirds and hummingbirds. Birds and humans share many analogous neurogenetic mechanisms underlying this key cognitive trait. In particular, the transcriptional factor FoxP2 appears to play a conserved role in vocal learning across most vocal learning clades. Budgerigars are notable for exhibiting life-long vocal learning abilities, which they use to develop shared contact call repertoires with mates and social associates. They also show chronic down-regulation of FoxP2 in MMSt a brain region essential for vocal learning. We hypothesized that such down-regulation is critical to maintaining open-ended learning abilities in budgerigars. We used AAV viral vectors and targeted stereotaxic injections to overexpress FoxP2 in the MMSt of male budgerigars and compared their vocal learning abilities before and after the FoxP2 manipulations. Males were placed with a novel female three weeks before injections and recorded daily to establish baseline learning rates. They then received injections of either the FoxP2 AAV or a control GFP, allowed to recover for two weeks, and then placed with a new novel female and recorded for an additional three weeks. Preliminary results based on 5 males in each treatment suggest that FoxP2 overexpression disrupts the ability of budgerigars to learn contact calls from females, supporting the hypothesis that chronic down-regulation FoxP2 is an essential component of their lifelong vocal learning abilities
