From electromyographic activity to frequency modulation in zebra finch song

Abstract

Behavior emerges from the interaction between the nervous system and peripheral devices. In the case of birdsong production, a delicate and fast control of several muscles is required to control the configuration of the syrinx (the avian vocal organ) and the respiratory system. In particular, the syringealis ventralis muscle is involved in the control of the tension of the vibrating labia and thus affects the frequency modulation of the sound. Nevertheless, the translation of the instructions (which are electrical in nature) into acoustical features is complex and involves nonlinear, dynamical processes. In this work, we present a model of the dynamics of the syringealis ventralis muscle and the labia, which allows calculating the frequency of the generated sound, using as input the electrical activity recorded in the muscle. In addition, the model provides a framework to interpret inter-syllabic activity and hints at the importance of the biomechanical dynamics in determining behavior.

Synthetic Birdsongs as a Tool to Induce, and Iisten to, Replay Activity in Sleeping Birds

“…In fact, it has been shown that from EMGs measurements in the vS muscle, it is possible to estimate the frequency modulations of zebra finch song. This requires transducing EMGs into muscle force by means of a model for the muscle, and this force into labial tension ( Doppler et al, 2018 ). In order to build this bridge between EMG and frequency modulation several quantitative tools had to be developed.…”

“…In this way, as the electrical activity shortens the slack, the difference between the muscles actual length and the slack is transduced into force ( Shapiro and Kenyon, 2000 ) through a nonlinear (exponential) function. These models were developed and implemented in Doppler et al (2018) . Figure 7 shows the spectrogram of a song, and the temporal evolution of the estimated fundamental frequency after integrating the muscle model and the labial model with the syringeal EMG as input (shown in blue in Figure 7A ).…”

“…(A) The spectrogram of a zebra finch song, and the simultaneous recording of the EMG at the syringealis ventralis muscle (blue traces). (B) , the proxy of the fundamental frequency, as the models in Doppler et al (2018) are integrated. The red segment was used to tune the parameters, and the black line shows the model’s prediction of the fundamental frequency for the complete song.…”

“…The red segment was used to tune the parameters, and the black line shows the model’s prediction of the fundamental frequency for the complete song. Adapted from Doppler et al (2018) .…”

Replay of innate vocal patterns during night sleep in suboscines

“…An important example is the activation of the song production circuitry during sleep in oscine songbirds. In the best-studied species, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), song in adult males is highly stereotyped and consists of 4-8 different syllables, each of which is accompanied by distinct activation patterns of the muscles of the vocal organ, the syrinx [16][17][18][19]. Song-like activation during sleep involves contractions of the syringeal muscles without concurrent activation of the © 2021 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society.…”