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）的神经基础的关键挑战是开发适当的动物模型。然而，对于语言，长期以来的理论立场认为，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，可以获得并使用从同源歌曲序列中提取的复杂模式规则，从而表现出以前被认为是人类独有的句法处理能力。我们最近也表明，听觉前脑区域（CMM）的单个神经元，类似于哺乳动物的听觉皮层，在成年椋鸟已经学会识别的歌曲中（且仅在歌曲中）获得声音特征的明确表征。这些结果的结合为我们对感知和认知时间模式声学通信信号的神经生物学和行为机制的理解提供了一个独特的机会。我们提出了一系列的神经生理学和行为研究，利用这个机会，以建立鸟鸣作为句法加工的神经生物学机制的模型系统的总体目标。我们将在上升的听觉层次中检查经验依赖的歌曲选择反应，测试毗邻CMM的听觉区域显示行为相关歌曲的选择性表征的假设。我们将在行为层面研究时间模式感知和句法规则学习，以了解学习的模式规则（即语法）如何被独立于模式元素声学的鸟类应用，这可能是鸟类与人类之间的关键区别。最后，我们将直接探索时间模式识别和句法处理的神经基础，通过验证描述歌曲基序模式的句法规则的习得导致习得的语法在CMM和/或邻近区域的显式表征的假设。这些研究的结果将为鸣禽建立一个模型系统，用于人类语言基础计算过程的生物学研究。因此，这项基础研究大大推进了儿童和认知障碍成人各种语言和交流障碍的临床治疗前景。

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.