Profile

David J. Perkel
Professor
perkel@u.washington.edu
Box: 356515
Office: 206-221-2477
Lab: 206-616-2582
Web Site

Bio:
B.A. 1984 Biology Harvard University

Ph.D. 1992 Neuroscience University of California, San Francisco

Research Interests:

Vocal learning in songbirds is an experimentally accessible model system in which to study the neural mechanisms of learning. Juvenile birds memorize song(s) from an adult tutor and then use auditory feedback from their own songs to compare with their memory of the tutor song(s). This comparison guides a process of motor learning; through practice, juvenile birds gradually learn to produce a highly stereotyped song that resembles the tutor song. Extensive research has investigated the underlying neural circuits that are involved in song learning and production. Our lab uses a variety of electrophysiological, anatomical and behavioral approaches to probe the neural mechanisms that mediate song learning and song behavior.
Two main neural circuits have been implicated in song production and learning. The motor pathway descends from forebrain nucleus HVC, which projects to nucleus RA, which then projects to brainstem motor and premotor neurons controlling muscles of the vocal organ, the syrinx, and those of respiration. This pathway is essential for production of song. A second circuit, the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), arises from HVC as well and projects to the basal ganglia structure area X, which projects to the thalamic nucleus DLM, which projects to a forebrain nucleus LMAN, which projects back to motor pathway nucleus RA. The AFP is essential for vocal learning but not production of previously learned song. Neurons of the AFP exhibit specific responsiveness to auditory information and are therefore well placed to provide the motor pathway with auditory feedback about the quality of the bird's own song.
Our main long-term goal is to understand at the level of neurons, synapses and circuits how song is learned and produced. Our current work falls into several categories:

- Mechanisms of pattern generation in the motor pathway
- Structure and function of the anterior forebrain pathway
- Evolutionary origin of the anterior forebrain pathway in songbirds
- Mechanisms underlying seasonal control of song (in collaboration with Eliot Brenowitz)

Selected Publications:

Gale SD, Perkel DJ (2006) Physiological properties of zebra finch ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra pars compacta neurons. J Neurophysiol. 96:2295-2306.

Solis MM, Perkel DJ (2006) Noradrenergic modulation of activity in a vocal control nucleus in vitro. J Neurophysiol. 95:2265-2276

Doupe AJ, Perkel DJ, Reiner A, Stern EA (2005) Birdbrains could teach basal ganglia research a new song. Trends Neurosci. 28:353-363.

Farries MA, Ding L, Perkel DJ (2005) Evidence for “Direct” and “Indirect” pathways through the song system basal ganglia. J Comp Neurol 484:93-104.

Solis MM, Perkel DJ (2005) Rhythmic synaptic activity in a forebrain vocal control nucleus in vitro. J Neurosci 25:2811-2822.

Gale S, Perkel DJ (2005) Properties of dopamine release and uptake in the songbird basal ganglia. J Neurophysiol 93:1871-1879.

Person AL, Perkel DJ (2005) Unitary IPSPs drive precise thalamic spiking in a circuit required for learning. Neuron 26:129-140.

Park KHJ, Meitzen J, Moore I, Brenowitz E, Perkel DJ (2005) Seasonal changes in intrinsic properties of neurons essential for learned vocalizations. J Neurobiol. 64:181-191.

Farries MA, Meitzen J, Perkel DJ (2005) Electrophysiological properties of neurons in the basal ganglia of the domestic chick: conservation and divergence in the evolution of the avian basal ganglia. J Neurophysiol. 94:454-467.

Ding L, Perkel DJ (2004) LTP in an avian basal ganglia nucleus essential for vocal learning. J Neurosci 24:488-494.

Reiner A, Perkel DJ et al. (2004) Revised nomenclature for avian telencephalon and some related brainstem nuclei. J Comp Neurol 473:377-414.

Ding L, Perkel DJ, Farries MA (2003) Presynaptic depression of glutamatergic synaptic transmission by D1-like dopamine receptor activation in the avian basal ganglia, J. Neurosci. 2003 23:6086-6095.

Luo M, Perkel DJ. Intrinsic and synaptic properties of neurons in an avian thalamic nucleus during song learning. J Neurophysiol. 2002 Oct;88(4):1903-14.

Ding L, Perkel DJ. Dopamine modulates excitability of spiny neurons in the avian basal ganglia. J Neurosci. 2002 Jun 15;22(12):5210-8.

Farries MA, Perkel DJ. A telencephalic nucleus essential for song learning contains neurons with physiological characteristics of both striatum and globus pallidus. J Neurosci. 2002 May 1;22(9):3776-87.

Perkel DJ, Farries MA, Luo M, Ding L. Electrophysiological analysis of a songbird basal ganglia circuit essential for vocal plasticity. Brain Res Bull. 2002 Feb-Mar 1;57(3-4):529-32. Review.

Luo M, Ding L, Perkel DJ. An avian basal ganglia pathway essential for vocal learning forms a closed topographic loop. J Neurosci. 2001 Sep 1;21(17):6836-45.

Perkel DJ, Farries MA. Complementary 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' approaches to basal ganglia function. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2000 Dec;10(6):725-31. Review.

Farries MA, Perkel DJ. Electrophysiological properties of avian basal ganglia neurons recorded in vitro. J Neurophysiol. 2000 Nov;84(5):2502-13.

Dutar P, Petrozzino JJ, Vu HM, Schmidt MF, Perkel DJ. Slow synaptic inhibition mediated by metabotropic glutamate receptor activation of GIRK channels. J Neurophysiol. 2000 Nov;84(5):2284-90.

Nealen PM, Perkel DJ. Sexual dimorphism in the song system of the Carolina wren Thryothorus ludovicianus. J Comp Neurol. 2000 Mar 13;418(3):346-60

Teaching Interests:
I teach Introduction to Systems Neurobiology, the second qtr. course in the undergraduate Neurobiology program. I also teach BIOL 461, Neurobiology, in alternate years. And I contribute to teaching graduate courses NB501 and NB503.