title: An integrated model for motor control of song in Serinus canaria.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, FCEyN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and IFIBA Conicet, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: ralonso@df.uba.ar.
authors.forename: Rodrigo Gogui
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, FCEyN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and IFIBA Conicet, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amador
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, FCEyN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and IFIBA Conicet, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Gabriel B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Mindlin
mesh_terms: D000400:Air Sacs / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002171:Canaries / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Biomechanical models; Birdsong production; Dynamical systems; Neural control; Nonlinear phenomena