Many species of songbirds do not sing instinctively but learn their songs by a process of auditory-guided vocal learning that starts with a kind of babbling that converges over several months and through tens of thousands of iterations to a highly precise adult song. How the neural circuitry of the songbird brain recognizes, generates, and learns temporal sequences related to song are important questions for neurobiologists and also interest an increasing number of physicists. I will discuss some of the fascinating recent experiments on songbirds and some of the contributions that physicists, including my own group, have made toward understanding these experiments. A conclusion of my talk will be that neurobiology is a young scientific frontier and that there are many opportunities, if not a great need, for physicists to contribute experimentally and theoretically.
Coffee and cookies before the presentation at 3:15 pm, and refreshments after the presentation will both be served in Room 128.