An integrated model for motor control of song in Serinus canaria

Publication date: Available online 8 December 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Rodrigo Gogui Alonso, Ana Amador, Gabriel B. Mindlin Birdsong is a learned motor behavior controlled by an interconnected structure of neural nuclei. This pathway is bilaterally organized, with anatomically indistinguishable structures in each brain hemisphere. In this work, we present a computational model whose variables are the average activities of different neural nuclei of the song system of oscine birds. Two of the variables are linked to the air sac pressure and the tension of the labia during canary song production. We show that these time dependent gestures are capable of driving a model of the vocal organ to synthesize realistic canary like songs.

Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - December 7, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research