There is evidence that sleep enhances memory and learning. Childhood is a critical period
for neurodevelopment, and minor but persistent disruption of sleep may have long-term …

We review here evidence that a large portion of the caudomedial telencephalon of
songbirds, distinct from the song control circuit, is involved in the perceptual processing of …

Sleep affects learning and development in humans and other animals, but the role of sleep
in developmental learning has never been examined. Here we show the effects of night …

Neural circuits and behavior are shaped during developmental phases of maximal plasticity
known as sensitive or critical periods. Neural correlates of sensory critical periods have …

As in human speech acquisition, songbird vocal learning depends on early auditory
experience. During development, juvenile songbirds listen to and form auditory memories of …

Synaptic interactions between telencephalic neurons innervating descending motor or basal
ganglia pathways are essential in the learning, planning, and execution of complex …

Vocal imitation involves incorporating instructive auditory information into relevant motor
circuits through processes that are poorly understood. In zebra finches, we found that …

Songbirds learn to sing by memorizing a tutor song that they then vocally mimic using
auditory feedback. This developmental sequence suggests that brain areas that encode …

Songbirds and humans both rely critically on hearing for learning and maintaining accurate
vocalizations. Evidence strongly indicates that auditory feedback contributes in real time to …

Young songbirds memorize a tutor song and use the memory trace as a template to shape
their own song by auditory feedback. Major issues in birdsong research include the neural …