A Novel Reinforcement Model of Birdsong Vocalization Learning

Terrence J. Sejnowski Howard Hughes Medical Institute UCSD and Salk Institute, San Diego, CA 92186-5800, USA Songbirds learn to imitate a tutor song through auditory and motor learning. We have developed a theoretical framework for song learning that accounts for response properties of neurons that have been observed in many of the nuclei that are involved in song learning. Specifically, we suggest that the anteriorforebrain pathway, which is not needed for song production in the adult but is essential for song acquisition, provides synaptic perturbations and adaptive evaluations for syllable vocalization learning. A computer model based on reinforcement learning was constructed that could replicate a real zebra finch song with 90% accuracy based on a spectrographic measure. The second generation of the birdsong model replicated the tutor song with 96% accuracy.