When songbirds sing, neurons in premotor areas fire coordinated bursts precisely timed to the dynamics of the song. The cellular mechanism for such sequence generation is unknown. These authors make the technical breakthrough of recording intracellularly in HVC neurons in singing birds, allowing them to test models of burst generation. They found that membrane potential rapidly depolarizes 5–10 ms before burst onset, consistent with models in which HVC neurons form synaptically connected chains.
- Michael A. Long
- Dezhe Z. Jin
- Michale S. Fee