Neural oscillations are locked to birdsong rhythms in canaries

Abstract

How vocal communication signals are represented in the cortex is a major challenge for behavioural neuroscience. Beyond a descriptive code, it is relevant to unveil the dynamical mechanism responsible for the neural representation of auditory stimuli. In this work, we report evidence of synchronous neural activity in nucleus HVC, a telencephalic area of canaries (Serinus canaria), in response to auditory playback of the bird's own song. The rhythmic features of canary song allowed us to show that this large‐scale synchronization was locked to defined features of the behaviour. We recorded neural activity in a brain region where sensorimotor integration occurs, showing the presence of well‐defined oscillations in the local field potentials, which are locked to song rhythm. We also show a correspondence between local field potentials, multiunit activity and single unit activity within the same brain region. Overall, our results show that the rhythmic features of the vocal behaviour are represented in a telencephalic region of canaries.

Dogs’ sensory-motor tuning shapes dog-human vocal interactions

“…At this point, it should be noted that there is currently no data available on dogs' processing of conspecific vocal sequences. Yet, it seems highly probable that dogs would similarly rely on delta tracking to process conspecifics signals given that cortical tracking is a basal processing mechanism 47,48,56 and that delta oscillations best match this species' vocal temporal patterning as shown in this study. Furthermore, we found that rather than dogs syllabifying speech, humans modify their vocal output to approach dogs' temporal channel.…”

“…However, theta coherence was significantly higher in humans (t=-2.87, df=10, p=0.02, d=0.9) but not in dogs (t=-0.6, df=7, p=0.5, d=0.2). In other words, dogs show evidence of auditory tracking capabilities, as do other species [47][48][49] , however, in the context of speech stimulation, such tracking is restricted to the delta band (Figure 4B). Given that dogs and humans differ with regards to the primary frequency band that responds most strongly to speech stimuli (i.e.…”