Enlargement of Neuronal Somata in the LMAN Coincides with the Onset of Sensorimotor Learning for Song

Abstract

The lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (LMAN) in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) has been shown to play a developmentally restricted role that is essential during song-learning processes. Dendritic spine frequencies and synapse numbers in LMAN have been reported to decline in males during early vocal motor learning and thereafter, but not in females, who do not sing. Nissl staining has shown the LMAN volume to be very similar in both sexes, however. To gain more insight into the development of sex-specific differences in LMAN, the size of neuronal somata and cell nuclei were analyzed in 1-μm semithin sections. Cell somata and nuclei were similar in males and females during the initial phases of sensory memory formation for song, but during early vocal motor learning cell size increased in males and decreased in females. Sex differences in neuronal somata size were present at 50 days and remained throughout life. This sex difference may be indicative of a difference in protein biosynthesis in LMAN, arising as a consequence of vocal learning in males.