Song decorrelates cortico–basal ganglia ensembles in zebra finches
4 affiliations
- 1Institute of Neuroinformatics, ETH Zurich & UZH, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
- 2Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay, CNRS & Université Paris-Saclay, 91400 Saclay, France
- 3Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
- 4IFLP-CONICET, Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CC 67, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
Abstract
The ability to acquire and adjust a sensorimotor skill relies on coordinated activity within a cortico–basal ganglia–thalamo–cortical loop, yet the underlying inter-areal dynamics remain unclear. The zebra finch (Taeniopygia castanotis) is well suited for studying these mechanisms, as male song depends on this circuit to bias downstream motor activity and adjust vocal output to social context. Using a custom-made reusable and torque-adjustable Neuropixels implant, we simultaneously recorded neural activity in the premotor region LMAN and in the basal ganglia–like striatal region Area X during rest, solo song, and female-directed song. Pairwise cross-covariance analyses among LMAN units and established striatal and pallidal neuron types revealed heterogeneous interactions during song that vanished on a population level whereas strong co-activation emerged for non-singing epochs. These results suggest that cortico–basal ganglia interactions are dynamically regulated across behavioral states—strong during spontaneous activity yet decorrelated during song—without specialization by Area X neuron type.
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BibTeX
@article{lorenz2026song,
title = {{Song decorrelates cortico–basal ganglia ensembles in zebra finches}},
author = {Corinna Lorenz and Ezequiel M. Arneodo and Richard H. R. Hahnloser and Nicolas Giret},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-63374-6},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05751860v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Song decorrelates cortico–basal ganglia ensembles in zebra finches
AU - Corinna Lorenz
AU - Ezequiel M. Arneodo
AU - Richard H. R. Hahnloser
AU - Nicolas Giret
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/28
JO - Scientific Reports
DO - 10.1038/s41598-026-63374-6
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05751860v1
AB - The ability to acquire and adjust a sensorimotor skill relies on coordinated activity within a cortico–basal ganglia–thalamo–cortical loop, yet the underlying inter-areal dynamics remain unclear. The zebra finch (Taeniopygia castanotis) is well suited for studying these mechanisms, as male song depends on this circuit to bias downstream motor activity and adjust vocal output to social context. Using a custom-made reusable and torque-adjustable Neuropixels implant, we simultaneously recorded neural activity in the premotor region LMAN and in the basal ganglia–like striatal region Area X during rest, solo song, and female-directed song. Pairwise cross-covariance analyses among LMAN units and established striatal and pallidal neuron types revealed heterogeneous interactions during song that vanished on a population level whereas strong co-activation emerged for non-singing epochs. These results suggest that cortico–basal ganglia interactions are dynamically regulated across behavioral states—strong during spontaneous activity yet decorrelated during song—without specialization by Area X neuron type.
SN - 2045-2322
ER -