Life Sciences Faculties

: A central question in neuroscience is how local processing and long-range influences work together to create behaviorally relevant neural dynamics. We address this issue by examining the song control pathway in the zebra finch. We find sufficient synaptic information is present in a key cortical structure to enable propagation of song-related sequences. We further demonstrate that long-range inputs from the motor thalamus can engage this circuitry in the service of behavior and large-scale brain synchronization. Our findings suggest that thalamic inputs may play an important initiating role for behaviorally-relevant cortical activity across species.