This Week in SCIENCE, Volume 320, Issue 5876
dated May 2 2008, is now available at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol320/issue5876/twis.dtl
From the Mouths of Baby Birds
Figure 1 [removed]The youthful noises of young zebra finches sound
different from adult zebra finches, somewhat like babbling in human
infants. Using surgical and pharmacological lesions, *Aronov /et al./*
(p. 630 <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/320/5876/630>)
eliminate some of the brain regions and neural connections that support
adult song. The lesions cause the adults to sound again like juveniles,
but leave juvenile vocalizations intact. Thus, the brain connections
upon which bird song depends differ between adults and juveniles, and
the process of song maturation is not simply a refinement of an existing
neural network, but involves switching from a youthful network to one
required for adult song.
