title: Temporal and rate code analysis of responses to low-frequency components in the bird's own song by song system neurons.
abstract: Auditory feedback (AF) plays a critical role in vocal learning. Previous studies in songbirds suggest that low-frequency (<~1 kHz) components may be salient cues in AF. We explored this with auditory stimuli including the bird's own song (BOS) and BOS variants with increased relative power at low frequencies (LBOS). We recorded single units from BOS-selective neurons in two forebrain nuclei (HVC and Area X) in anesthetized zebra finches. Song-evoked responses were analyzed based on both rate (spike counts) and temporal coding of spike trains. The BOS and LBOS tended to evoke similar spike-count responses in substantially overlapping populations of neurons in both HVC and Area X. Analysis of spike patterns demonstrated temporal coding information that discriminated among the BOS and LBOS stimuli significantly better than spike counts in the majority of HVC (94 %) and Area X (85 %) neurons. HVC neurons contained more and a broader range of temporal coding information to discriminate among the stimuli than Area X neurons. These results are consistent with a role of spike timing in coding differences in the spectral components of BOS in HVC and Area X neurons.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA. makoto_fukushima@me.com.
authors: Makoto
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8809-7892
authors: M
authors: Fukushima
authors: Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
authors: Peter L
authors: PL
authors: Rauske
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.|Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Margoliash
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D056228:Feedback, Sensory / Q000502:physiology*; D046369:Finches; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology*; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000166:cytology* / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Auditory feedback; HVC; Temporal coding; Zebra finch