HVC (formerly, hyperstriatum ventrale, pars caudalis (HVc), and high vocal center) is a nucleus in the brain of the songbirds (order passeriformes) necessary for both the learning and the production of

bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...

. It is located in the lateral caudal

nidopallium The nidopallium, meaning nested pallium, is the region of the avian brain that is used mostly for some types of executive functions but also for other higher cognitive tasks. The region was renamed nidopallium in 2002 during the Avian Brain Nomen ...

and has projections to both the direct and the anterior forebrain pathways. It is notable that both of the other orders of birds that learn song, the hummingbirds and parrots, also seem to have structures similar to HVC. Since it is believed that all three of these groups independently derived the ability to learn song, it is believed that these other HVC-like structures are examples of homoplasy.

Name

HVC was originally called the hyperstriatum ventrale, pars caudalis (HVc). Later neuroanatomy revealed this name to be incorrect, however, and many researchers referred to it as the high vocal center due to its important function in vocal learning. When the nomenclature of the avian brain was officially revised in 2004, these names were officially dropped in order to correct the historical inaccuracies. As there was "No easy solution for correcting original naming error for this structure" HVC was established as the formal name for the region and no longer stands for anything.

Anatomy

HVC is located in the caudal

. It projects to the song motor pathway via the robust nucleus of the

arcopallium The arcopallium refers to regions of the avian brain which partially overlap regions homologous to the amygdala of mammals. These regions have formerly been referred to as archistriatum, and before this epistriatum or amygdaloid complex, and a r ...

(RA) and to the Anterior Forebrain Pathway via the basal ganglia nucleus Area X. It receives recurrent motor activity through the

thalamic The thalamus (from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter located in the dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain). Nerve fibers project out of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex in all directions, ...

nucleus Uvaformis (Uva) and input from the

auditory system The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing. It includes both the sensory organs (the ears) and the auditory parts of the sensory system. System overview The outer ear funnels sound vibrations to the eardrum, increasin ...

through projections from the caudalateral mesopallium (CMM) and through the nucleus interfacialis (NIf). Four distinct types of neurons have been identified in HVC, each with unique anatomical and physiological properties:

interneuron Interneurons (also called internuncial neurons, relay neurons, association neurons, connector neurons, intermediate neurons or local circuit neurons) are neurons that connect two brain regions, i.e. not direct motor neurons or sensory neurons. I ...

s, RA-projecting cells (HVC), and X-projecting cells (HVC), and Nucleus Avalanche (Av) projecting cells (HVC_AV).

References

External links

* {{MeshName, High+Vocal+Center Bird neuroanatomy Animal nervous system

Name

Anatomy

See also

References

External links