相关论文: Temperature manipulation in songbird brain implica…
Songs of many songbird species consist of variable sequences of a finite number of syllables. A common approach for characterizing the syntax of these complex syllable sequences is to use transition probabilities between the syllables. This…
Consecutive repetition of actions is common in behavioral sequences. Although integration of sensory feedback with internal motor programs is important for sequence generation, if and how feedback contributes to repetitive actions is poorly…
Studies of motor control have almost universally examined firing rates to investigate how the brain shapes behavior. In principle, however, neurons could encode information through the precise temporal patterning of their spike trains as…
The means by which neuronal activity yields robust behavior is a ubiquitous question in neuroscience. In the songbird, the timing of a highly stereotyped song motif is attributed to the cortical nucleus HVC, and to feedback to HVC from…
Complex, learned motor behaviors involve the coordination of large-scale neural activity across multiple brain regions, but our understanding of the population-level dynamics within different regions tied to the same behavior remains…
Complex sequencing rules observed in birdsongs provide an opportunity to investigate the neural mechanism for generating complex sequential behaviors. To relate the findings from studying birdsongs to other sequential behaviors, it is…
Practice of a complex motor gesture involves exploration of motor space to attain a better match to target output, but little is known about the neural code for such exploration. Here, we examine spiking in an area of the songbird brain…
Traditional theories of sensorimotor learning posit that animals use sensory error signals to find the optimal motor command in the face of Gaussian sensory and motor noise. However, most such theories cannot explain common behavioral…
A fundamental problem in neuroscience is to understand how sequences of action potentials ("spikes") encode information about sensory signals and motor outputs. Although traditional theories of neural coding assume that information is…
We propose a functional architecture of the adult songbird nucleus HVC in which the core element is a "functional syllable unit" (FSU). In this model, HVC is organized into FSUs, each of which provides the basis for the production of one…
The problem of deciphering how low-level patterns (action potentials in the brain, amino acids in a protein, etc.) drive high-level biological features (sensorimotor behavior, enzymatic function) represents the central challenge of…
Contrary to the intense debate about brain oxygen dynamics and its uncoupling in mammals, very little is known in birds. In zebra finches, picosecond optical tomography (POT) with a white laser and a streak camera can measure in vivo…
Trial-and-error learning requires evaluating variable actions and reinforcing successful variants. In songbirds, vocal exploration is induced by LMAN, the output of a basal ganglia-circuit that also contributes a corrective bias to the…
The influence of temperature on neuronal excitability is studied by numerical simulations on the spiking threshold characteristics of bushy cells in cochlear nucleus periodically stimulated by synaptic currents. The results reveal that…
The long-range dependencies among the tokens, which originate from hierarchical structures, are a defining hallmark of human language. However, whether similar dependencies exist within the sequential vocalization of non-human animals…
Evolution has shaped animal bodies, yet to what extent biomechanical systems impose constraints and provide opportunities across different behaviors remains unclear. In birds, quiet breathing operates at a resonance of the respiratory…
In nature, animals encounter high dimensional sensory stimuli that have complex statistical and dynamical structure. Attempts to study the neural coding of these natural signals face challenges both in the selection of the signal ensemble…
The wings of Lepidoptera contain a matrix of living cells whose function requires appropriate temperatures. However, given their small thermal capacity, wings can overheat rapidly in the sun. Here we analyze butterfly wings across a wide…
Research in bioacoustics, neuroscience, and linguistics often uses birdsong as a proxy to acquire knowledge across diverse areas. This requires audio models to annotate and parse the birdsong. Developing such models requires precise,…
This paper presents an algorithm that simulates the calls of the Hyalessa maculaticollis cicada for musical use. Written in SuperCollider, its input parameters enable real-time control of the insect call phase, loudness, and perceived…