Neuronal Mechanism of Critical Period Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan.
Collective Interactions Unit, OIST Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan.
Science. 2016 Dec 9;354(6317):1282-1287. doi: 10.1126/science.aah6799.
Juvenile songbirds learn vocal communication from adult tutors of the same species but not from adults of other species. How species-specific learning emerges from the basic features of song prosody remains unknown. In the zebra finch auditory cortex, we discovered a class of neurons that register the silent temporal gaps between song syllables and are distinct from neurons encoding syllable morphology. Behavioral learning and neuronal coding of temporal gap structure resisted song tutoring from other species: Zebra finches fostered by Bengalese finch parents learned Bengalese finch song morphology transposed onto zebra finch temporal gaps. During the vocal learning period, temporal gap neurons fired selectively to zebra finch song. The innate temporal coding of intersyllable silent gaps suggests a neuronal barcode for conspecific vocal learning and social communication in acoustically diverse environments.
幼年鸣禽通过与同种成年导师学习来获得声音交流能力，而不是通过与其他物种的成年个体学习。物种特异性学习如何从歌曲韵律的基本特征中产生仍然未知。在斑马雀听觉皮层中，我们发现了一类神经元，它们记录了鸣叫声之间的无声时间间隔，与编码音节形态的神经元不同。行为学习和时间间隔结构的神经元编码抵制了来自其他物种的歌曲教学：由文鸟父母养育的斑马雀学会了将文鸟的鸣叫声形态转移到斑马雀的时间间隔上。在发声学习期间，时间间隔神经元选择性地对斑马雀的鸣叫声作出反应。音节之间无声间隔的先天时间编码为同种声音学习和在声学环境多样化的情况下进行社会交流提供了一个神经元条码。
