Representing the dynamics of natural marmoset vocal behaviors in frontal cortex

Abstract

Here we tested the respective contributions of primate premotor and prefrontal cortex to support vocal behavior. We applied a model-based GLM analysis that better accounts for the inherent variance in natural, continuous behaviors to characterize the activity of neurons throughout frontal cortex as freely-moving marmosets engaged in conversational exchanges. While analyses revealed functional clusters of neural activity related to the different processes involved in the vocal behavior, these clusters did not map to subfields of prefrontal or premotor cortex, as has been observed in more conventional task-based paradigms. Our results suggest a distributed functional organization for the myriad neural mechanisms underlying natural social interactions and has implications for our concepts of the role that frontal cortex plays in governing ethological behaviors in primates.

A model of marmoset monkey vocal turn-taking

“…We first tested and failed to replicate the coupled oscillator hypothesis for the larger population of marmosets tested here, instead finding that respective call timing between marmosets in these exchanges was stochastic. Following a thorough analysis of marmoset vocal behaviour, we propose a novel features-based model, based on internal and external states, that describes conversational dynamics across various paradigms from single, pairs and trios of marmosets, and provides a framework for the neural mechanisms underlying these dynamics [20][21][22].…”