Sensory and Motor Systems
Author: Facundo Fainstein | Email: facu.fainstein@gmail.com
Facundo Fainstein 1°, Ana Amador 1°, Franz Goller 2°, Gabriel B. Mindlin 3°
1° Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina, and CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinaria y Aplicada (INFINA), Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2° Institute of Zoophysiology, University of Münster, Münster 48143, Germany and School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
3° Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina, and CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinaria y Aplicada (INFINA), Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Madrid, Spain.
Activation of circuits in the forebrain during sleep has been linked to the consolidation of memories, including motor memories. However, the specific motor patterns reproduced during sleep remain largely elusive in any system. Single-cell measurements in these brain areas in songbirds have not allowed the detection of specific song patterns and a precise study of variants not observed during daytime performance. It has recently been discovered that in zebra finches this activity can be detected in the muscles of the vocal organ. Interestingly, this activity was not simultaneous with song-like respiratory events, which were thought to be inhibited. In this work we show that domestic canaries (Serinus canaria) exhibit spontaneous song-like activity in respiratory muscles and in air sac pressure fluctuations. These events are frequent predominantly towards the end of the night, shorter than daytime vocalizations but with similar rhythmic patterns. We find that the syllable sequences observed during the night deviate from the most probable sequences during daytime vocalizations. More generally, this result contributes to a program aimed at quantitatively studying dreamt complex motor patterns.