Reliable execution of precise behaviors requires that brain circuits are resilient to variations in neuronal dynamics. Genetic perturbation of the majority of excitatory neurons in HVC, a brain region involved in song production, in adult songbirds with stereotypical songs triggered severe degradation of the song. The song fully recovered within 2 weeks, and substantial improvement occurred even when animals were prevented from singing during the recovery period, indicating that offline mechanisms enable recovery in an unsupervised manner. Song restoration was accompanied by increased excitatory synaptic input to neighboring, unmanipulated neurons in the same brain region. A model inspired by the behavioral and electrophysiological findings suggests that unsupervised single-cell and population-level homeostatic plasticity rules can support the functional restoration after large-scale disruption of networks that implement sequential dynamics. These observations suggest the existence of cellular and systems-level restorative mechanisms that ensure behavioral resilience.

精确行为的可靠执行要求大脑回路能够适应神经元动力学的变化。在发出刻板歌曲的成年鸣禽中，HVC（参与歌曲产生的大脑区域）的大多数兴奋性神经元的遗传扰动引发了歌曲的严重退化。歌曲在两周内完全恢复，即使在恢复期间阻止动物唱歌，歌曲也出现了实质性的改善，这表明离线机制可以以无人监督的方式进行恢复。歌曲恢复伴随着同一大脑区域邻近的、未操作的神经元的兴奋性突触输入的增加。受行为和电生理学研究结果启发的模型表明，无监督的单细胞和群体水平的稳态可塑性规则可以支持实现顺序动力学的网络大规模破坏后的功能恢复。这些观察结果表明，存在确保行为弹性的细胞和系统级恢复机制。