Nature Communications (May 2021)

Expression of FoxP2 in the basal ganglia regulates vocal motor sequences in the adult songbird

  • Lei Xiao,
  • Devin P. Merullo,
  • Therese M. I. Koch,
  • Mou Cao,
  • Marissa Co,
  • Ashwinikumar Kulkarni,
  • Genevieve Konopka,
  • Todd F. Roberts

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22918-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 18

Abstract

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Disruption of FOXP2 cause Childhood Apraxia of Speech, a speech disorder marked by difficulties in accurately sequencing vocal motor actions. The authors show that disruption of FoxP2 in the adult songbird similarly disrupts birdsong and link dopaminergic signalling to disruptions in song production.