Human-like brain hemispheric dominance in birdsong learning

Abstract

Unlike nonhuman primates, songbirds learn to vocalize very much like human infants acquire spoken language. In humans, Broca's area in the frontal lobe and Wernicke's area in the temporal lobe are crucially involved in speech production and perception, respectively. Songbirds have analogous brain regions that show a similar neural dissociation between vocal production and auditory perception and memory. In both humans and songbirds, there is evidence for lateralization of neural responsiveness in these brain regions. Human infants already show left-sided dominance in their brain activation when exposed to speech. Moreover, a memoryspecific left-sided dominance in Wernicke's area for speech perception has been demonstrated in 2.5-mo-old babies. It is possible that auditory-vocal learning is associated with hemispheric dominance and that this association arose in songbirds and humans through convergent evolution. Therefore, we investigated whether there is similar song memory-related lateralization in the songbird brain. We exposed male zebra finches to tutor or unfamiliar song. We found left-sided dominance of neuronal activation in a Broca-like brain region (HVC, a letter-based name) of juvenile and adult zebra finch males, independent of the song stimulus presented. In addition, juvenile males showed left-sided dominance for tutor song but not for unfamiliar song in a Wernickelike brain region (the caudomedial nidopallium). Thus, left-sided dominance in the caudomedial nidopallium was specific for the song-learning phase and was memory-related. These findings demonstrate a remarkable neural parallel between birdsong and human spoken language, and they have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of auditory-vocal learning and its neural mechanisms.left-brain activation | hemispheric specialization | Taeniopygia guttata | language evolution

A lateralized functional auditory network is involved in anuran sexual selection

“…Vocalization is reduced significantly in male leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) when the left but not the right hemisphere is lesioned, thus suggesting that the lefthemisphere is dominant for vocalization in males (Bauer 1993). These results are comparable to studies in birds and the well-known results in humans in which conspecific auditory perception and song/language production are both dominated by the left-hemisphere (Bolhuis et al 2010;Moorman et al 2012). Descending projections from the left forebrain in males may also regulate vocal competition, insofar as male music frogs generally prefer to compete with HSA rather than LSA calls (Fang et al 2014a).…”

Audition and Hemispheric Specialization in Songbirds and New Evidence from Australian Magpies

“…In starling research, behaviourally-relevant song stimuli were used to test whether the NCM might be Song output via the main nuclei, the HVC of the nidopallium; RA, robust nucleus of the arcopallium; LMAN, lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium; Area X of the striatum; DLM, medial subdivision of the dorsolateral nucleus of the anterior thalamus; DM, dorsomedial subdivision of nucleus intercollicularis of the mesencephalon; Uva, nucleus uvaeformis; nXIIts, tracheosyringeal portion of the nucleus hypoglossus (nucleus XII); rVRG, rostral ventral respiratory group. (B) Auditory input HVC of the nidopallium with HVC shelf (lightly shaded); CLM, caudolateral mesopallium; CMM, caudomedial mesopallium; Field L, large area (light grey) subdivided into L1, L2 and L3; NCM, caudomedial nidopallium; RA, robust nucleus of the arcopallium; Ov, nucleus ovoidalis; MLd, nucleus mesencephalicus lateralis, pars dorsalis; LL, lateral lemniscus subdivided into: LLD, dorsal nucleus; LLI, intermediate nucleus; LLV, ventral nucleus; CN, cochlear nucleus; SO, superior olive (adapted from [58]). …”

A Higher Sensory Brain Region Is Involved in Reversing Reinforcement-Induced Vocal Changes in a Songbird

“…In the case of vocalizations, motor learning can occur long after the sensory target has last been experienced (Marler and Tamura, 1964;Funabiki and Konishi, 2003), revealing a long-lasting influence of sensory memories on development and maintenance of motor performance. Vocal learners also rely on the ability to process self-generated auditory input, as shown, for instance, by the disruptive effects of deafening or auditory feedback perturbation on human speech (Lane and Webster, 1991;Svirsky et al, 1992;Houde and Jordan, 1998) and birdsong (Nordeen and Nordeen, 1992;Leonardo and Konishi, 1999;Brainard and Doupe, 2000).…”