Neural population dynamics for complex behaviors

To understand the neural mechanisms of complex behaviors, a highly valuable approach is to correlate the activity of neurons with the behavior in question. In brain areas with highly variable firing rates, a serial approach of recording the activity of neuron one by one may not provide enough insights into neural mechanisms. I propose to perform simultaneous recordings of multiple neurons in avian song-control areas, with the aim of providing new insights into collective mechanism of song production and song learning.