Auditory-Vocal Processing in a Behavioral Context

描述（由申请人提供）：使人类和其他一些物种能够使用学习的声音信号（例如语音）进行交流的神经生物学适应尚未得到很好的理解。成像数据已经导致的建议，语音不仅是偏侧的，但也处理在听觉（腹侧，颞）流，服务于声学对象识别和运动（背侧，额叶）流，映射到前运动发声区的声音。在电路水平上对该提议进行神经生物学研究需要建立参与发声学习的动物模型。目前的项目将使用鸣禽模型来详细研究双流提议，因为1）鸣禽是极少数动物类群中最容易研究的，它们学会像人类一样为社会交流产生声音信号; 2）鸣禽前脑的两个解剖学和功能不同的区域似乎对歌曲进行了不同的处理，就像语音一样。我们建议开发一种新的范式，使用清醒和行为的鸣禽，通过记录在听觉和发声的前运动区，这可能发挥重要作用，在复杂的通信信号的感知处理，以及在发声生产暴露历史和行为显着性对听觉处理的影响进行评估。为此，我们将使用三种方法在生理记录之前和期间操纵行为显着性。1)鸟类将学习在行为范例中辨别其他个体的独特歌曲，然后在听觉和运动结构中进行双侧急性多电极记录，以测试行为强化对对训练刺激反应的影响2）具有针对听觉和运动结构的长期植入电极的鸟类将经历辨别训练，使得与行为学习相关的感觉处理的变化能够被真实的研究。3)将发展一种新的方法，用于将辨别训练与头部固定鸟类的急性神经生理记录相结合。这将使高质量的同时记录从不同的神经结构的双边行为，结合前两种方法的优势。拟议的工作在两个方面具有重要意义。首先，它的目的是既利用现有的方法收集听觉区的神经数据在行为过程中，也开发一种新的范式从清醒的鸣禽在执行歧视任务的多电极记录。这种创新的方法将允许真实的时间评估的听觉处理相关的语音通信信号的歧视。第二，这些方法将首次使同时记录在任务执行过程中从感觉结构和发声运动通路，这可能有一个重要的作用，在知觉处理，只有在任务的背景下，已被研究表明重叠的语音生产和知觉功能。这将测试双流的建议，并可能揭示有关正常和异常语音处理的重要原则。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The neurobiological adaptations that enable humans and a few other species to communicate using learned vocal signals, e.g. speech, are not well understood. Imaging data have led to the proposal that speech is not only lateralized, but also processed both in an auditory (ventral, temporal) stream that serves acoustic object identification and in an auditory-motor (dorsal, frontal) stream that maps sounds onto pre-motor vocal areas. Neurobiological investigation of this proposal at the circuit level requires an established animal model that engages in vocal learning. The current project will use the songbird model to study the dual stream proposal in detail because 1) songbirds are the most easily studied of the very few animal taxa that learn to produce vocal signals for social communication as humans do; and 2) songs appear to be processed differently in two anatomically and functionally distinct areas of the songbird forebrain, as seems true for speech. We propose to develop a novel paradigm, using awake and behaving songbirds, to evaluate the effects of exposure history and behavioral salience on auditory processing by recording in both the auditory and vocal pre-motor areas, which may play an important role in perceptual processing of complex communication signals as well as in vocal production. To this end, we will manipulate behavioral salience before and during physiological recordings, using three approaches. 1) Birds will learn to discriminate the unique songs of other individuals in a behavioral paradigm, followed by acute multielectrode recording in auditory and motor structures bilaterally to test the effects of behavioral reinforcement on responses to training stimuli 2) Birds with chronically implanted electrodes that target auditory and motor structures will undergo discrimination training, enabling changes in sensory processing associated with behavioral learning to be studied in real time. 3) A novel method for combining discrimination training with acute neurophysiological recording in head-fixed birds will be developed. This will enable high quality simultaneous recording from different neural structures bilaterally during behavior, combining the strengths of the first two methods. The proposed work is significant in two ways. First, it aims to both exploit existing methods for collecting neural data from auditory areas during behavior and also to develop a novel paradigm for multielectrode recording from awake songbirds during performance of a discrimination task. This innovative approach will allow for real time assessment of the auditory processing that underlies the discrimination of relevant vocal communication signals. Second, these approaches will for the first time enable simultaneous recording during task performance from both sensory structures and the vocal motor pathway, which may have an important role in perceptual processing that is only revealed in a task context, as has been suggested by studies showing overlap of speech production and perceptual function. This will test the dual stream proposal and may reveal important principles relevant to both normal and abnormal speech processing.