Affiliations: Department of Biology, University of Nebraska at
Kearney, Kearney, NE, USA. E-mail: carmen.panaitof@gmail.com
Abstract: The neural and genetic bases of human language development and
associated neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder
(ASD), in which language impairment represents a core deficit, are poorly
understood. Given that no single animal model can fully capture the behavioral
and genetic complexity of ASD, work in songbird, an experimentally tractable
animal model of vocal learning, can complement the valuable tool of rodent
genetic models and contribute important insights to our understanding of the
communication deficits observed in ASD. Like humans, but unlike traditional
laboratory animals such as rodents or non-human primates, songbirds exhibit the
capacity of vocal learning, a key subcomponent of language. Human speech and
birdsong reveal important parallels, highlighting similar developmental
critical periods, a homologous cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry, and a
critical role for social influences in the learning of vocalizations. Here I
highlight recent advances in using the songbird model to probe the cellular and
molecular mechanisms underlying the formation and function of neural circuitry
for birdsong and, by analogy, human language, with the ultimate goal of
identifying any shared or human unique biological pathways underscoring
language development and its disruption in ASD.
