It was first observed by Fernando Nottebohm in 1976 in a paper titled "Central control of song in the canary, Serinus canarius", published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology.
Based on lesion studies in the zebra finch, the song system can be broken into two general pathways.
Adult birds who experience these same lesions continue to sing normally for some time.
The song system has emerged as leading model of adult neural plasticity.
The song system is the first neural circuit in which it was conclusively demonstrated that newly generated neurons are incorporated into the brains of adults vertebrates.