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Neural correlates of categorical perception in learned vocal communication.

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Date
2009-02
Authors
Prather, Jonathan F
Nowicki, Stephen
Anderson, Rindy C
Peters, Susan
Mooney, Richard
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Abstract
The division of continuously variable acoustic signals into discrete perceptual categories is a fundamental feature of vocal communication, including human speech. Despite the importance of categorical perception to learned vocal communication, the neural correlates underlying this phenomenon await identification. We found that individual sensorimotor neurons in freely behaving swamp sparrows expressed categorical auditory responses to changes in note duration, a learned feature of their songs, and that the neural response boundary accurately predicted the categorical perceptual boundary measured in field studies of the same sparrow population. Furthermore, swamp sparrow populations that learned different song dialects showed different categorical perceptual boundaries that were consistent with the boundary being learned. Our results extend the analysis of the neural basis of perceptual categorization into the realm of vocal communication and advance the learned vocalizations of songbirds as a model for investigating how experience shapes categorical perception and the activity of categorically responsive neurons.
Type
Journal article
Subject
Acoustic Stimulation
Animals
Auditory Perception
High Vocal Center
Imitative Behavior
Male
Neurons
Sparrows
Territoriality
Vocalization, Animal
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13716
Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1038/nn.2246
Publication Info
Prather, Jonathan F; Nowicki, Stephen; Anderson, Rindy C; Peters, Susan; & Mooney, Richard (2009). Neural correlates of categorical perception in learned vocal communication. Nat Neurosci, 12(2). pp. 221-228. 10.1038/nn.2246. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13716.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Scholars@Duke

Nowicki

Stephen Nowicki

Professor of Biology
Our lab studies animal communication and sexual selection from an integrative perspective that includes a wide range of behavioral ecological, neuroethological, developmental, genetic, and evolutionary approaches. Birds are our most common model system, but we also have worked with insects, spiders, shrimp, lobsters, lizards, and primates, including humans. The central question that drives our work is how information, in the broadest sense of that word, is used by organisms to maximize survival
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