I am interested in understanding the neural mechanisms that enable the performance and perception of natural behaviors used in communication. Songbirds provide an especially attractive model in which to investigate the role of the CNS in vocal communication, because songbirds learn their vocalizations through mimicry of other birds and refinement of their own performance using sensory feedback. In addition, songbirds possess a set of discrete neural structures specialized for the learning, performance and perception of songs. My research is focused on the activity of one set of these neurons (nucleus HVC) in awake and freely behaving birds as they sing or hear playback of their own songs and songs of conspecifics .
In collaboration with Steve Nowicki and Rich Mooney I study swamp sparrows, a species that sings a repertoire of only a few acoustically distinct song types, enabling me to ask how different elements of a vocal repertoire are simultaneously represented in the CNS. My experiments have revealed that individual projection neurons in HVC are selective for one song type among the multiple songs in the bird's repertoire, suggesting that different song types may be represented by independent populations of dedicated neurons. My ongoing experiments investigate whether activity of individual neurons may relate to the bird's categorical perception of song features, and whether individual neurons may represent one and the same song type in both the auditory and singing states. In addition to these aims, my results have revealed that auditory activity of HVC projection neurons is tightly correlated to specific acoustic features of the song. Future behavioral experiments will determine whether the acoustic features that are necessary and sufficient to evoke neural activity are also salient in defining the bird's perception of the song.
Recent Papers:
