决策存在于感官知觉和运动产生之间的界面。在伴侣选择的背景下,雌性鸣鸟是定义神经回路的绝佳系统,感官知觉通过该神经回路影响求偶行为的产生。我们小组和其他人先前的实验都暗示了次级听觉大脑部位,包括尾nidopalium(NC),在调节择偶行为指标方面。这里,我们使用顺行示踪分子来定义雌性鸣禽中NC出现的投影,确定NC影响信号处理和决策中涉及的下游站点的途径。我们的结果表明,NC将投影发送到骨,包括腹侧中间骨镓(AIV)。先前的工作表明,AIV还从另一个与歌曲偏好和伴侣选择有关的听觉区域接收输入(尾中皮层,CM),这表明来自多个听觉区域的融合输入可能在启动伴侣选择行为中起重要作用。在目前的结果中,NC项目到涉及姿势和运动控制的区域(背侧骨骨,Ad),表明NC可能在指导这些形式的交配行为中发挥作用。NC投影还系统地避免了由CM(粗骨的坚固核)支配的粗骨的声音运动区域。这些结果表明了一个模型,其中NC和CM都投射到与行为动机有关的骨途径。这些大脑区域可能对通路施加不同的影响,通过这些通路,听觉信息可以将行为反应的不同方面引导到这些听觉信号中检测到的信息。
Decision making resides at the interface between sensory perception and movement production. Female songbirds in the context of mate choice are an excellent system to define neural circuits through which sensory perception influences production of courtship behaviors. Previous experiments by our group and others have implicated secondary auditory brain sites, including the caudal nidopallium (NC), in mediating behavioral indicators of mate choice. Here, we used anterograde tracer molecules to define projections that emerge from NC in female songbirds, identifying pathways through which NC influences downstream sites implicated in signal processing and decision making. Our results reveal that NC sends projections into the arcopallium, including the ventral intermediate arcopallium (AIV). Previous work revealed that AIV also receives input from another auditory area implicated in song preference and mate choice (caudal mesopallium, CM), suggesting that convergent input from multiple auditory areas may play important roles in initiating mate choice behaviors. In the present results, NC projects to an area implicated in postural and locomotory control (dorsal arcopallium, Ad), suggesting that NC may play a role in directing those forms of copulatory behavior. NC projections also systematically avoid a vocal motor region of the arcopallium that is innervated by CM (robust nucleus of the arcopallium). These results suggest a model in which both NC and CM project to arcopallial pathways implicated in behavioral motivation. These brain regions may exert different influences on pathways through which auditory information can direct different facets of behavioral responses to information detected in those auditory signals.