Responses to song playback differ in sleeping versus anesthetized songbirds

Abstract Vocal learning in songbirds is mediated by a highly localized system of interconnected forebrain regions, including recurrent loops that traverse the cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus. This brain-behavior system provides a powerful model for elucidating mechanisms of vocal learning, with implications for learning speech in human infants, as well as for advancing our understanding of skill learning in general. A long history of experiments in this area has tested neural responses to playback of different song stimuli in anesthetized birds at different stages of vocal development. These studies have demonstrated selectivity for different song types that provide neural signatures of learning. In contrast to the ease of obtaining responses to song playback in anesthetized birds, song-evoked responses in awake birds are greatly reduced or absent, indicating that behavioral state is an important determinant of neural responsivity. Song-evoked responses can be elicited in sleeping as well as anesthetized zebra finches, and the selectivity of responses to song playback in adult birds tends to be highly similar between anesthetized and sleeping states, encouraging the idea that anesthesia and sleep are highly similar. In contrast to that idea, we report evidence that cortical responses to song playback in juvenile zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) differ greatly between sleep and urethane anesthesia. This finding indicates that behavioral states differ in sleep versus anesthesia and raises questions about relationships between developmental changes in sleep activity, selectivity for different song types, and the neural substrate for vocal learning. Significance Patterns of spiking activity based on electrophysiological recordings in many different taxa are known to be heavily dependent on behavioral state. Neural activity patterns are frequently similar between sleep and anesthesia, which has encouraged the idea that similar states characterize sleep and anesthesia. Based on comparisons across studies, we report that activity patterns are highly dissimilar between sleep and urethane anesthesia in a cortical region of juvenile songbirds. These data argue against the idea that similar behavioral states are achieved in sleep versus anesthesia.