Auditory Mechanisms for Complex Acoustic Communication

描述（由申请人提供）：理解任何复杂行为（包括人类语言）的神经基础的一个关键挑战是开发适当的动物模型。然而，对于语言，长期的理论立场认为，许多潜在的认知能力是人类独有的。然而，我们最近已经证明，欧洲椋鸟，一种鸣禽，可以获得和使用复杂的模式规则提取序列的同种歌曲，从而表现出句法处理能力，以前认为只有人类。我们最近还表明，在听觉前脑区CMM，一个类似于哺乳动物的听觉皮层，单个神经元获得明确表示的声音特征在（只有在）的歌曲，成年椋鸟已经学会了识别。这些结果的组合提供了一个独特的机会，我们的理解的神经生物学和行为机制的感知和认知的时间模式的声学通信信号的显着进步。我们提出了一系列的神经生理学和行为学的研究，利用这个机会，建立鸟鸣作为一个模型系统的句法处理的神经生物学机制的总体目标。我们将研究经验依赖的歌曲选择性反应在听觉层次的上升，测试的假设，即邻近CMM的听觉区域表现出选择性的行为相关的歌曲表示。我们将在行为层面研究时间模式感知和语法规则学习，以了解鸟类如何独立于模式元素声学来应用学到的模式规则（即语法），这也许是鸟类和人类之间的关键区别。最后，我们将探索的时间模式识别和句法处理的神经基础直接，通过测试的假设，即收购的句法规则描述模式的歌曲主题导致明确表示收购的语法在CMM和/或邻近地区。这些研究的结果将为鸣禽建立一个模型系统，用于研究人类语言基础的基本计算过程。因此，这项基础研究大大推进了儿童和认知障碍成人的各种语言和沟通障碍的临床治疗的前景。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A critical challenge in understanding the neural basis of any complex behavior, including human language, is the development of appropriate animal models. Yet, for language, longstanding theoretical positions hold that many of the underlying cognitive capabilities are uniquely human. We have recently demonstrated, however, that European starlings, a species of song bird, can acquire and use complex patterning rules extracted from sequences of conspecific songs, thereby exhibiting syntactic processing abilities previously thought unique to humans. We have also recently shown that single neurons in the auditory forebrain region CMM, an analog to mammalian auditory cortex, acquire explicit representations of acoustic features in (and only in) the songs that adult starlings have learned to recognize. The combination of these results provides a unique opportunity for significant advancement in our understanding of the neurobiological and behavioral mechanisms for the perception and cognition of temporally patterned acoustic communication signals. We propose a series of neurophysiological and behavioral studies that capitalize on this opportunity with the overall goal of establishing birdsong as a model system for the neurobiological mechanisms of syntactic processing. We will examine experience-dependent song-selective responses in the ascending auditory hierarchy, testing the hypothesis that the auditory regions adjacent to CMM show selective representations of behaviorally relevant songs. We will examine temporal pattern perception and syntactic rule learning at the behavioral level to understand how learned patterning rules (i.e. syntax) can be applied by birds independent of pattern element acoustics, perhaps a crucial distinction between birds and humans. Finally, we will explore the neural bases of temporal pattern recognition and syntactic processing directly, by testing the hypothesis that the acquisition of syntactic rules describing patterns of song motifs leads to explicit representation of the acquired syntax in CMM and/or adjacent regions. The results of these studies will establish songbirds a model system for biological study of fundamental computational processes that underlie human language. This basic research therefore advances significantly the promise of clinical treatment for a variety of language and communication disorders, in children and cognitively impaired adults.