Auditory Memories and Vocal Learning

听觉记忆和声音学习

• 批准号: 8290305
• 负责人: Frederic E. THEUNISSEN
• 金额: $ 31.91万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8290305
• 关键词: Acoustics; Affect; Amaze; Anatomy; Area; Auditory; Auditory area; Auditory system; Behavioral; Biological Models; Birds; Cell Nucleus; Classification; Cochlear Implants; Cognitive; Communication; Complex; Comprehension; Data; Detection; Development; Discrimination; Electrodes; Emotional; Environment; Familiarity; Funding; Glass; Goals; Hearing Aids; Human; Information Theory; Knowledge; Lateral; Lead; Learning Disabilities; Link; Maps; Medial; Mediating; Memory; Mental disorders; Methods; Microelectrodes; Midbrain structure; Music; Neurons; Noise; Perception; Population; Preparation; Process; Property; Research; Role; Signal Transduction; Songbirds; Source; Speech; Stream; Structure; Structure-Activity Relationship; Synapses; System; Systems Analysis; Techniques; Testing; Thalamic structure; Voice; Work; advanced system; analog; auditory pathway; awake; base; cell type; computerized data processing; design; extracellular; falls; functional group; male; neural circuit; neural prosthesis; next generation; novel; receptive field; relating to nervous system; research study; response; skills; sound; speech recognition; vocal learning; vocalization

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our auditory system analyzes complex sound waveforms in an amazing diversity of ways. First, it extracts features that give us the percepts of rhythm, timbre and pitch. Simultaneously those features are combined and compared to stored memories to produce higher-order percepts such as the meaning of speech, the speaker's identity and her emotional state. Second, these auditory tasks are often performed with environmental noise or other interfering acoustical signals in the background. Finally, our auditory system needs also to process the sound of our own voice to guide our vocalizations. We propose to study the auditory system of songbirds as a model system to understand the neural computations of circuitry underlying these diverse abilities. In previous work, we have characterized responses in the avian auditory midbrain, thalamus and in the primary and secondary auditory cortex. We have shown that auditory neurons are specialized to represent natural sounds and that we can explain this specialization from their tuning properties. We also found evidence for parallel functional processing streams: auditory neurons in the midbrain and thalamus fall into different functional types based on how they decompose sound into features that are crucial for different auditory percepts. Our major goals for this project are 1) to relate the functional properties of neurons to the anatomy and microcircuitry of the auditory cortex, 2) to begin to unravel the cellular computations that lead to the observed functional specialization and 3) to investigate the computations in the primary and secondary auditory cortex that could allow the system to process signals in noise. To achieve these goals we will record from single neurons in the anesthetized preparation, both with multi-electrode arrays for extracellular recordings or with glass electrodes for intracellular recordings and immunohistochemical work. We will also record neural activity in awake behaving birds using a miniaturized electrode drive. The birds will be placed in situations that elicit them to actively communicate. In all our experiments, we will analyze the neurons' tuning and selectivity using state-of-the-art techniques from systems analysis and information theory. Our studies will elucidate the roles of different circuits within auditory cortex in processing complex sounds such as speech and music. This knowledge will be essential to understand how dysfunctional auditory processing in certain mental disorders affects speech recognition and consequently other cognitive skills. Our work could also be instrumental in the development of novel signal processing methods for auditory neural prosthetics.

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的听觉系统以惊人的多样性方式分析复杂的声音波形。首先，它提取的特征，给我们的节奏，音色和音高的感知。同时，这些特征被结合起来，并与存储的记忆进行比较，以产生更高阶的感知，如语音的含义，说话者的身份和她的情绪状态。其次，这些听觉任务通常在环境噪声或背景中的其他干扰声学信号的情况下执行。最后，我们的听觉系统还需要处理我们自己的声音来指导我们的发声。我们建议研究鸣禽的听觉系统作为一个模型系统，以了解这些不同的能力背后的电路的神经计算。在以前的工作中，我们的特点是在鸟类听觉中脑，丘脑和初级和次级听觉皮层的反应。我们已经证明，听觉神经元是专门代表自然声音，我们可以解释这种专门化从他们的调谐特性。我们还发现了并行功能处理流的证据：中脑和丘脑中的听觉神经元根据它们如何将声音分解为对不同听觉感知至关重要的特征而分为不同的功能类型。我们这个项目的主要目标是1）将神经元的功能特性与听觉皮层的解剖学和微电路联系起来，2）开始解开导致观察到的功能特化的细胞计算，3）调查初级和次级听觉皮层中的计算，这些计算可以让系统处理噪声中的信号。为了实现这些目标，我们将记录从单个神经元的麻醉准备，无论是与多电极阵列的细胞外记录或与玻璃电极的细胞内记录和免疫组织化学工作。我们还将使用微型电极驱动器记录清醒行为鸟类的神经活动。这些鸟将被放置在能引起它们积极交流的环境中。在我们所有的实验中，我们将使用来自系统分析和信息论的最先进的技术来分析神经元的调谐和选择性。 我们的研究将阐明听觉皮层内不同回路在处理复杂声音（如语音和音乐）中的作用。这些知识对于理解某些精神疾病中功能失调的听觉处理如何影响语音识别以及其他认知技能至关重要。我们的工作也可能有助于开发新的听觉神经修复信号处理方法。