Motor Correlates of Song Production

描述（由申请人提供）：鸣禽和鹦鹉是为数不多的人类语言动物模型，其中有可能实验研究产生复杂的，学习发声所涉及的基本生理和声学问题。然而，这些鸟类作为语音产生的外周机制的模型的有用性受到以下事实的限制：尽管喉上声道在语音的清晰度中起着突出的作用，但它是鸟类中声音产生的最不容易理解的组成部分之一。本研究的目的是填补这一空白，解决的作用和功能，在鸟鸣的上袖带声道。将通过实验确定鸟类气管和口咽腔的声学特性。将监测和量化声道运动模式，该模式可以通过在歌曲期间改变声道的长度或形状来调制声音，从而改变其共振或滤波器特性。将测量气管、喉、声门、舌、喙和口咽运动的声学作用。将确定可调谐声道滤波器的位置和性质，这些滤波器可以跟踪发声的基频，改变宽带声音的共振峰结构或抑制选定的谐波分量。一个两腔模型的英语元音生产的鹦鹉将进行测试。这些声道运动程序的个体发育与其他方面的歌曲学习将在幼鸟进行调查。控制这些运动模式的运动神经元及其运动前输入的位置将被确定，连接声道运动控制和大脑中歌曲控制电路的中枢通路将被绘制出来，来自肺和空洞的反馈通路也将被绘制出来。听觉和体感反馈的相对作用，在提供闭环，实时调制的声道运动程序，可以补偿不可预测的周边扰动也将被检查。从这些实验中获得的知识将显着提高对歌曲生产的理解和鸟鸣的有用性，用于研究也适用于语音的发声控制的基本机制，包括重要的语音流畅性障碍，如口吃的运动基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Songbirds and parrots are among the few animal models for human speech in which it is possible to experimentally study the basic physiological and acoustic problems involved in producing complex, learned vocalizations. The usefulness of these birds as a model for peripheral mechanisms of speech production is limited however by the fact that, although the supralaryngeal vocal tract plays a preeminent role in the articulation of speech, it is one of least well understood components of sound production in birds. This research aims to fill that gap by addressing the role and function of the suprasyringeal vocal tract in birdsong. The acoustic properties of the avian trachea and oropharyngeal cavity will be experimentally determined. Vocal tract motor patterns that may modulate sound by varying the length or shape of the vocal tract during song, thus altering its resonant or filter properties will be monitored and quantified. The acoustic role of tracheal, laryngeal, glottal, lingual, beak and oropharyngeal movements will be measured. The location and the nature of tunable vocal tract filters that may track the fundamental frequency of vocalizations, vary the formant structure of broadband sounds or suppress selected harmonic components will be determined. A two chamber model of English vowel production by parrots will be tested. The ontogenetic development of these vocal tract motor programs in relation to other aspects of song learning will be investigated in juvenile birds. The location of motor neurons controlling these motor patterns and their premotor inputs will be determined and the central pathways linking motor control of the vocal tract to the song control circuitry in the brain will be mapped, as will feedback pathways from the lungs and syrinx. The relative roles of auditory and somatosensory feedback in providing closed-loop, real-time modulation of vocal tract motor programs that may compensate for unpredictable peripheral perturbations will also be examined. The knowledge gained from these experiments will significantly improve the understanding of song production and the usefulness of birdsong for studying fundamental mechanisms of vocal control that also apply to speech, including the motor basis of important speech fluency disorders such as stuttering.