The role of DARPP-32+ NNs in zebra finch song production

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT

Benjamin Filio III

Benjamin Filio III (or Ben, less syllables) is a rising junior (’22) from West Covina, California. At Wesleyan, he is a double major in Neuroscience & Behavior and Science in Society with a minor in College of East Asian Studies. Outside of academics, Ben is also a McNair Scholar, Digital Scholarship Fellow, Orientation Leader, and works at Pi Café & Weshop. He is also involved in Wesleyan’s K-Pop Dance Crew, WesBurlesque, and POCApella. After graduation, Ben hopes to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience and/or Science & Technology Studies with the ultimate goal of becoming a research professor.

Abstract: Zebra finches incorporate new neurons into song regions throughout adulthood in a process called adult neurogenesis. Even after song is mastered, two types of adult-born neurons (NNs) are added to HVC, the zebra finch’s vocal center (Tokarev, et al., 2016). One type of HVC NN sends axons to the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) (Walton, et al., 2012) which stimulates motor neurons responsible for vocalization (Brenowitz, et al., 1997). However, only a few things are known about the other type of HVC NN: it does not project to RA or another brain region called Area X (Walton, et al., 2012), it is not an inhibitory interneuron (Scotto-Lomassese, et al., 2007), and it transiently expresses DARPP-32, a protein that signals for dopaminoceptive neurons (Svenningsson et al., 2007). This project investigates the identity and function of the DARPP-32+ HVC NN: we examine IEG expression to determine whether the DARPP-32+ HVC NN is active during song production.

BFilioRISPoster-1-1

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT

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