animal vocal communication MEDS 371 Human speech and animal vocal communication Dr. Duck O. Kim

zebra finches zebra finch song female female male male www.sfu.ca/biology/wildberg/species/Zebraf.gif zebra finch song Click to hear sound

spectrogram of a male zebra finch song frequency (kHz) 4 syllables sequence of syllables -> motif motif ~ word Purves Box 24-B

spectrogram of humpback whale calls/songs humpback whale calls/songs A spectrogram of calls/songs by several individual humpback whales; Cornell Lab of Ornithology Click to hear sound

frequency (kHz) time (sec) spectrogram of a male mouse song Click to hear sound time (sec)

spectrograms of human speech 0.5 sec Doupe & Kuhl 1999

zebra finch song human speech freq. (kHz) freq. (kHz) 4 2 0.5 sec freq. (kHz) freq. (kHz) 0.5 sec 0.5 sec

chronology of song acquisition in zebra finches Doupe et al., 2005

Zebra finch human Jarvis et al., 2005

basal ganglia of mammal and bird striatum globus pallidus Doupe et al., 2005

Model of the birdsong system plasticity (key slide of this lecture) auditory feedback (FB) eval. aud. FB re template (basal gang.) auditory system instr. (error) signal song production system (motor) song adapted from Brainard & Doupe 2000

HVC, RA, & LMAN: cortex homolog RA: upper motor neurons the song system of zebra finch SNc/VTA auditory input lower motor n. -> vocal organ area X: basal ganglia DLM: thalamus SNc/VTA: midbrain HVC, RA, & LMAN: cortex homolog RA: upper motor neurons Doupe et al., 2005

zebra finch song; a normal adult Doupe et al., 2005 The normal adult song consists of motifs of a stereotyped sequence of syllables.

others: cortex homolog zebra finch song; area X lesioned in a juvenile SNc/VTA area X: BG DLM: thalamus SNc/VTA: midbrain others: cortex homolog Doupe et al., 2005 The song remains immature and highly variable. normal song of zebra finch abnormal song of deaf zebra finch

X X X X Model of the birdsong system plasticity auditory feedback eval. aud. FB (basal gang.) X instr. (error) signal aud. percep. X deafness Brainard & Doupe 2000 adapted from song motor system song X deterioration normal song of zebra finch abnormal song of deaf zebra finch

In adult humans and song birds, speech and song deteriorate when deafness is encountered at an adult age. This is not the result of a passive process but it reflects an active adaptive plasticity involving the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia mediates adulthood sensorimotor adaptive plasticity.

human speech / language

MI SI arcuate fasciculus Broca’s area Wernicke’s area AI Haines Fig 16-13

large stroke in large stroke in the right cortex the left cortex neglect of left body/space & other symptoms large stroke in the left cortex aphasia & other symptoms Purves Fig 26-6

PET imaging under various speech tasks viewing words speaking words listening to words generating word associations Purves Fig 27-6

three major types of aphasia Broca’s aphasia Wernicke’s aphasia global aphasia

Purves Table 27-1

genetic deficit of speech function An inherited deficit in spoken language has been associated with a mutation in FOXP2 gene on chromosome 7. Functional magnetic resonance imaging study has linked the deficit to underactivity in Broca's area during word generation. Possible link between FOXP2 and the mirror-neuron system observed in the primate homologue of Broca's area. This link might have implications for the evolution of Broca's area and its role in speech (a new gene). Reference: Vargha-Khadem et al. 2005. FOXP2 and the neuroanatomy of speech and language. Nature Rev 6: 131-138.