Neural basis of vocal signal recognition during natural communication

自然交流过程中声音信号识别的神经基础

• 批准号: 8882386
• 负责人: CORY T MILLER
• 金额: $ 37.4万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8882386
• 关键词: Acoustics; Address; Affect; Animals; Auditory; Auditory area; Auditory system; Behavior; Behavioral; Callithrix; Callithrix jacchus jacchus; Categories; Clinical Treatment; Communication; Complex; Computer software; Cues; Data; Dimensions; Disease; Dorsal; Environment; Foundations; Future; Histology; Human; Individual; Language; Location; Modeling; Neocortex; Neuroanatomy; Neurologic; Neurons; Patients; Perception; Physiology; Play; Prefrontal Cortex; Primates; Process; Property; Role; Sampling; Series; Signal Transduction; Site; Speech; Stimulus; Structure; System; Techniques; Testing; Voice; Work; base; cognitive process; communication behavior; frontal lobe; innovation; neural patterning; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; neurophysiology; nonhuman primate; novel; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sex; social; sound; speech recognition; vocalization

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Human and nonhuman primates communicate with conspecifics using vocalizations. For communication in this medium to be successful, listeners must be able to recognize vocal signals (e.g. words for humans) and parse them from the plethora of other biotic and abiotic sounds in the acoustic environment. Rather than be the culmination of vocal signal recognition, identifying species-specific acoustic signals is only one part of a more complex process. Like other objects, vocal signals comprise a number of categories that reflect social dimensions of the caller, such as individual identity, sex, dialect, etc. These social categories are encoded in the acoustic structure of the vocalization due to idiosyncrasies in the caller's voice and are known to be perceptually meaningful in both human and nonhuman primate vocal interactions. While the neural basis of speech recognition has been extensively studied using various neuroimaging techniques and patients, much less is known about its underlying cellular mechanisms. Given similarities in vocal perception and homologies in the auditory system neuroanatomy, nonhuman primates represent an excellent model for explicating the neural mechanisms underlying vocal signal recognition in primate neocortex. Nearly all earlier neural studies of vocalization processing in nonhuman primate cortex involve experiments in which vocalization exemplars are presented to restrained animals. Communication, however, is an inherently interactive process involving the exchange of signals between conspecifics. The aim of this proposal is to examine vocal signal recognition in naturally behaving common marmosets while they engage in antiphonal calling, a vocal behavior characterized by the reciprocal exchange of vocalizations. Since marmosets will only produce an antiphonal call in response to a particular call type, this behavior represents a natural (i.e. untrained) recognition system and is uniquely suited to explore the neural basis of social categorization during natural communication for the following three reasons. First, previous work shows that social categories of callers affect the dynamics of antiphonal calling. Second, we developed novel, interactive playback software that allows us to elicit this vocal response under experimental conditions. And third, we can record the activity of single neurons in marmoset prefrontal cortex while subjects are freely-moving. These three components represent a potentially powerful approach to addressing the three aims of this proposal. Specific Aim 1 is to combine single-unit neurophysiology and histology to characterize the functional neuroanatomy of marmoset frontal cortex for vocal communication. This aim will establish a foundation for all subsequent physiology, both in this proposal and further in the future. Specific Aim 2 seeks to extensively test the perceptual basis of social categorization by presenting subjects with synthetically manipulated vocalizations. Specific Aim 3 builds on the preceding aims of this proposal by testing the neural basis of social categorization during antiphonal calling using the neuroanatomical locations of Aim 1 and the perceptual findings of Aim 2.

描述（由申请人提供）：人类和非人类灵长类动物使用发声与同种动物进行交流。为了在这种媒介中取得成功，听众必须能够识别声音信号（例如人类的单词）并从声学环境中的大量其他生物和非生物声音中解析它们。识别特定物种的声音信号并不是声音信号识别的顶峰，而是更复杂过程的一部分。与其他对象一样，声音信号包含许多反映呼叫者社会维度的类别，例如个人身份、性别、方言、 由于呼叫者声音的特质，这些社会类别被编码在发声的声学结构中，并且已知在人类和非人类灵长类动物的声音互动中都具有感知意义。虽然语音识别的神经基础已经通过各种神经影像技术和患者进行了广泛的研究，但对其潜在的细胞机制知之甚少。鉴于听觉系统神经解剖学中声音感知和同源性的相似性，非人类灵长类动物代表了解释灵长类新皮质中声音信号识别的神经机制的优秀模型。几乎所有早期关于非人类灵长类动物皮层发声处理的神经研究都涉及将发声样本呈现给受约束的动物的实验。然而，沟通本质上是一个交互过程，涉及同种人之间的信号交换。该提案的目的是检查自然行为的普通狨猴在进行对声呼叫（一种以发声相互交换为特征的发声行为）时的声音信号识别。由于狨猴只会针对特定的呼叫类型产生对声呼叫，因此这种行为代表了一种自然的（即未经训练的）识别系统，并且由于以下三个原因特别适合探索自然交流期间社会分类的神经基础。首先，之前的研究表明，呼叫者的社会类别会影响对歌的动态。其次，我们开发了新颖的交互式播放软件，使我们能够在实验条件下引发这种声音反应。第三，当受试者自由移动时，我们可以记录狨猴前额皮质中单个神经元的活动。这三个组成部分代表了实现该提案三个目标的潜在强大方法。具体目标 1 是结合单单位神经生理学和组织学来表征狨猴额叶皮层用于声音交流的功能神经解剖学特征。这一目标将为所有后续生理学奠定基础，无论是在本提案中还是在未来。具体的 目标 2 旨在通过向受试者提供综合操纵的发声来广泛测试社会分类的感知基础。具体目标 3 建立在本提案的前述目标之上，通过使用目标 1 的神经解剖位置和目标 2 的感知发现来测试对声呼叫期间社会分类的神经基础。