MARQUETTE, Mich.—Memory in songbirds, from learning and producing songs to locating food sites in complex environments, will be discussed during a colloquium at Northern Michigan University. David Bailey, a biology professor at St. Norbert College, will speak from 3-5 p.m. Friday, March 12, in Mead Auditorium in the West Science Building. The public is invited free of charge.

Bailey will examine the convergence of procedural and “episodic-like” memories in songbirds. Procedural memory is responsible for song production and is controlled by networks of cells from various regions of the brain. Episodic memory covers spatial recall of food sites and it is managed almost exclusively by the hippocampus. Bailey will report on pieces of data that suggest a confluence between the two systems.

The colloquium is co-sponsored by the NMU biology and psychology departments.