Michael Brainard, PhD
Professor
Physiology
School of Medicine

Grants and Projects

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• Modular systems for large scale, long lasting measurements of brain activity, NIH, 2018-2021
• Organization and experience-dependence of auditory coding in forebrain, NIH, 2012-2018
• Neural Analysis of Vocal Learning, NIH, 1996-2017
• Behavioral and Neural Analysis of Vocal Plasticity, NIH, 2004-2015
• Learning in neural circuits: applied optogenetics in non-genetic models, NIH, 2009-2012
• Variation as a Neural Code, NIH, 2006-2012

Publications (54)

Top publication keywords:
Auditory PerceptionMotor SkillsPitch PerceptionVocalization, AnimalProsencephalonAcoustic StimulationLearningAcousticsNeural PathwaysBasal GangliaAuditory PathwaysAnimal CommunicationSongbirdsFinchesSexual Behavior, Animal

• Lesions in a songbird vocal circuit increase variability in song syntax.
  eLife 2024 Koparkar A, Warren TL, Charlesworth JD, Shin S, Brainard MS, Veit L
• Dynamic top-down biasing implements rapid adaptive changes to individual movements.
  eLife 2023 Tian LY, Warren TL, Mehaffey WH, Brainard MS
• Neural circuit-wide analysis of changes to gene expression during deafening-induced birdsong destabilization.
  eLife 2023 Colquitt BM, Li K, Green F, Veline R, Brainard MS
• Shared mechanisms of auditory and non-auditory vocal learning in the songbird brain.
  eLife 2022 McGregor JN, Grassler AL, Jaffe PI, Jacob AL, Brainard MS, Sober SJ
• Songbirds can learn flexible contextual control over syllable sequencing.
  eLife 2021 Veit L, Tian LY, Monroy Hernandez CJ, Brainard MS

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• Cellular transcriptomics reveals evolutionary identities of songbird vocal circuits.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2021 Colquitt BM, Merullo DP, Konopka G, Roberts TF, Brainard MS
• Acetylcholine acts on songbird premotor circuitry to invigorate vocal output.
  eLife 2020 Jaffe PI, Brainard MS
• Learning is enhanced by tailoring instruction to individual genetic differences.
  eLife 2019 Mets DG, Brainard MS
• The Avian Basal Ganglia Are a Source of Rapid Behavioral Variation That Enables Vocal Motor Exploration.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2018 Kojima S, Kao MH, Doupe AJ, Brainard MS
• An automated approach to the quantitation of vocalizations and vocal learning in the songbird.
  PLoS computational biology 2018 Mets DG, Brainard MS
• Zebra finches are sensitive to combinations of temporally distributed features in a model of word recognition.
  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2018 Knowles JM, Doupe AJ, Brainard MS
• Draft genome assembly of the Bengalese finch, Lonchura striata domestica, a model for motor skill variability and learning.
  GigaScience 2018 Colquitt BM, Mets DG, Brainard MS
• Genetic variation interacts with experience to determine interindividual differences in learned song.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2017 Mets DG, Brainard MS
• Vocal learning promotes patterned inhibitory connectivity.
  Nature communications 2017 Miller MN, Cheung CYJ, Brainard MS
• Discrete Circuits Support Generalized versus Context-Specific Vocal Learning in the Songbird.
  Neuron 2017 Tian LY, Brainard MS
• Timing during transitions in Bengalese finch song: implications for motor sequencing.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2017 Troyer TW, Brainard MS, Bouchard KE
• Auditory-induced neural dynamics in sensory-motor circuitry predict learned temporal and sequential statistics of birdsong.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2016 Bouchard KE, Brainard MS
• An Adapting Auditory-motor Feedback Loop Can Contribute to Generating Vocal Repetition.
  PLoS computational biology 2015 Wittenbach JD, Bouchard KE, Brainard MS, Jin DZ
• Role of the site of synaptic competition and the balance of learning forces for Hebbian encoding of probabilistic Markov sequences.
  Frontiers in computational neuroscience 2015 Bouchard KE, Ganguli S, Brainard MS
• Editorial overview: communication and language: animal communication and human language.
  Current opinion in neurobiology 2014 Brainard MS, Fitch WT
• Neural encoding and integration of learned probabilistic sequences in avian sensory-motor circuitry.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2013 Bouchard KE, Brainard MS
• Translating birdsong: songbirds as a model for basic and applied medical research.
  Annual review of neuroscience 2013 Brainard MS, Doupe AJ
• Vocal learning is constrained by the statistics of sensorimotor experience.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2012 Sober SJ, Brainard MS
• Variable sequencing is actively maintained in a well learned motor skill.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2012 Warren TL, Charlesworth JD, Tumer EC, Brainard MS
• Covert skill learning in a cortical-basal ganglia circuit.
  Nature 2012 Charlesworth JD, Warren TL, Brainard MS
• Mechanisms and time course of vocal learning and consolidation in the adult songbird.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2011 Warren TL, Tumer EC, Charlesworth JD, Brainard MS
• Learning the microstructure of successful behavior.
  Nature neuroscience 2011 Charlesworth JD, Tumer EC, Warren TL, Brainard MS
• Linked control of syllable sequence and phonology in birdsong.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2010 Wohlgemuth MJ, Sober SJ, Brainard MS
• Social context rapidly modulates the influence of auditory feedback on avian vocal motor control.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2009 Sakata JT, Brainard MS
• Adult birdsong is actively maintained by error correction.
  Nature neuroscience 2009 Sober SJ, Brainard MS
• An avian basal ganglia-forebrain circuit contributes differentially to syllable versus sequence variability of adult Bengalese finch song.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2009 Hampton CM, Sakata JT, Brainard MS
• Online contributions of auditory feedback to neural activity in avian song control circuitry.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2008 Sakata JT, Brainard MS
• Central contributions to acoustic variation in birdsong.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2008 Sober SJ, Wohlgemuth MJ, Brainard MS
• Social modulation of sequence and syllable variability in adult birdsong.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2008 Sakata JT, Hampton CM, Brainard MS
• Performance variability enables adaptive plasticity of 'crystallized' adult birdsong.
  Nature 2007 Tumer EC, Brainard MS
• Real-time contributions of auditory feedback to avian vocal motor control.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2006 Sakata JT, Brainard MS
• Lesions of an avian basal ganglia circuit prevent context-dependent changes to song variability.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2006 Kao MH, Brainard MS
• Contributions of an avian basal ganglia-forebrain circuit to real-time modulation of song.
  Nature 2005 Kao MH, Doupe AJ, Brainard MS
• Contributions of the anterior forebrain pathway to vocal plasticity.
  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2004 Brainard MS
• What songbirds teach us about learning.
  Nature 2002 Brainard MS, Doupe AJ
• Postlearning consolidation of birdsong: stabilizing effects of age and anterior forebrain lesions.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2001 Brainard MS, Doupe AJ
• Song selectivity and sensorimotor signals in vocal learning and production.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2000 Solis MM, Brainard MS, Hessler NA, Doupe AJ
• Auditory feedback in learning and maintenance of vocal behaviour.
  Nature reviews. Neuroscience 2000 Brainard MS, Doupe AJ
• Interruption of a basal ganglia-forebrain circuit prevents plasticity of learned vocalizations.
  Nature 2000 Brainard MS, Doupe AJ
• Images in neuroscience. Brain development, V: Experience affects brain development.
  The American journal of psychiatry 1998 Brainard MS, Knudsen EI
• Sensitive periods for visual calibration of the auditory space map in the barn owl optic tectum.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 1998 Brainard MS, Knudsen EI
• Newly learned auditory responses mediated by NMDA receptors in the owl inferior colliculus.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 1996 Feldman DE, Brainard MS, Knudsen EI
• Dynamics of visually guided auditory plasticity in the optic tectum of the barn owl.
  Journal of neurophysiology 1995 Brainard MS, Knudsen EI
• Creating a unified representation of visual and auditory space in the brain.
  Annual review of neuroscience 1995 Knudsen EI, Brainard MS
• Neural substrates of sound localization.
  Current opinion in neurobiology 1994 Brainard MS
• Experience-dependent plasticity in the inferior colliculus: a site for visual calibration of the neural representation of auditory space in the barn owl.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 1993 Brainard MS, Knudsen EI
• Neural derivation of sound source location: resolution of spatial ambiguities in binaural cues.
  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 1992 Brainard MS, Knudsen EI, Esterly SD
• Visual instruction of the neural map of auditory space in the developing optic tectum.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 1991 Knudsen EI, Brainard MS
• Single-channel analysis of four distinct classes of potassium channels in Drosophila muscle.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 1988 Zagotta WN, Brainard MS, Aldrich RW