Song learning in songbirds resembles acquisition of speech in humans. We suspect that normal vocal development requires continuous interactions between motor and perceptual processes across long time scales. This proposed research will develop an experimental approach that will provide the first combined perceptual-motor measurements across vocal development, as sensorimotor learning takes place. Continuous song recordings in zebra finches during the entire sensorimotor developmental phase of song learning show rapid acquisition of tutor song patterns. Structured trajectory of vocal changes during learning has been discovered. Those measurements will be complemented by continuous measurements of auditory evoked potentials, capturing patterns of brain activation to currently learned sounds. Preliminary findings indicate that temporal patterns of song stimulus-elicited surface auditory evoked potentials reflect neural representations of song syllables in adult zebra finches. These patterns appear to be shaped by tutoring experience. We propose to develop a method using quantitative evoked potential measurements to study how vocal changes correlate with perceptual changes from moment to moment, and throughout vocal development. This method enables us to test the hypothesis that the dynamic changes associated with the matching of pupil song with the target tutor song during learning is dependent on and preceded by the formation of the sensory representation of the target song.
The specific aims of this project are: 1. to combine the songbird Sound Analysis system with multi-site auditory evoked potentials recording system to allow continuous recording of global spatio-temporal patterns of auditory evoked activity from brain surface in parallel with online analysis of vocal changes; and 2. to use the above method to test the general hypothesis that learning of birdsong is preceded by the maturation and establishment of sensory neural representation of the tutor song. The proposed method would involve implantation of an array of 6 chronic epidural recording electrodes on each half of the brain of a zebra finch and one midline epidural cerebellar reference electrode. It would also involve the development of analytical tools to correlate acoustic profiles of songs with their electrophysiological correlates. It would enable us to extract brain spatio-temporal patterns that correlate with both sensory perception and vocal motor behavior. The significance of this project is that it would create an integrated experimental paradigm to compare these correlates across different developmental and behavioral states within the same bird, as well as across different birds under varying conditions. This paradigm would be of value in studies involving songbird models of speech motor control disorders.
| Voss, Henning U; Salgado-Commissariat, Delanthi; Helekar, Santosh A (2010) Altered auditory BOLD response to conspecific birdsong in zebra finches with stuttered syllables. PLoS One 5:e14415 |
| Benjamin, Alexander; Kashem, Moses; Cohen, Camille et al. (2008) Proteomics of the nucleus ovoidalis and field L brain regions of zebra finch. J Proteome Res 7:2121-32 |
| Voss, Henning U; Tabelow, Karsten; Polzehl, Jorg et al. (2007) Functional MRI of the zebra finch brain during song stimulation suggests a lateralized response topography. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:10667-72 |
