The role of frontal lobe networks in cognitive control of monkey vocalizations

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Speech is one of the key distinguishing features that defines us as human allowing us complex audio-vocal communication. Learned vocal patterns such as human speech are produced primarily by cortical areas, with Broca area in the ventro-lateral frontal lobe as key structure for voluntary speech production. In contrast, genetically pre-programmed vocalizations, which include those of non-human primates and most other mammals, are generated by a complex neuronal network in the brainstem. Recently, we established the rhesus monkey as a nonhuman primate model to study behavioral and neuronal foundations of volitional control of vocal behavior. Our neurophysiological data suggest a cardinal role of the monkey homologue of Broca area in vocal planning and call initiation, a putative phylogenetic precursor in nonhuman primates for speech control in linguistic humans. The aim of the proposed project is, first, to further investigate the role of the monkey homologue of human Broca area in volitional call production by testing how activation and inactivation of groups of neurons during different epochs of the behavioral task in the monkeys homologue of Broca area is affecting vocal behavior. Second, recordings in the anterior cingulate cortex and the pre-supplementary motor area will elucidate how single neurons contribute to the linkage of cognitive processes and motor output in vocal behavior.