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The Journal of Neuroscience, February 18, 2009, 29(7):2252-2258; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4650-08.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Own-Song Recognition in the Songbird Auditory Pathway: Selectivity and Lateralization

Colline Poirier,¹ Tiny Boumans,¹ Marleen Verhoye,^1,2 Jacques Balthazart,³ and Annemie Van der Linden¹

¹Bio-Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Sciences, and ²Vision Laboratory, University of Antwerp, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium, and ³Research Unit in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium

Correspondence should be addressed to Colline Poirier, Bio-Imaging Laboratory, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium. Email: colline.poirier{at}ua.ac.be

The songbird brain is able to discriminate between the bird's own song and other conspecific songs. Determining where in the brain own- song selectivity emerges is of great importance because experience-dependent mechanisms are necessarily involved and because brain regions sensitive to self-generated vocalizations could mediate auditory feedback that is necessary for song learning and maintenance. Using functional MRI, here we show that this selectivity is present at the midbrain level. Surprisingly, the selectivity was found to be lateralized toward the right side, a finding reminiscent of the potential right lateralization of song production in zebra finches but also of own-face and own-voice recognition in human beings. These results indicate that a midbrain structure can process subtle information about the identity of a subject through experience-dependent mechanisms, challenging the classical perception of subcortical regions as primitive and nonplastic structures. They also open questions about the evolution of the cognitive skills and lateralization in vertebrates.

Key words: birdsong; auditory; lateralization; midbrain; functional MRI; cognition

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Received Sept. 29, 2008; revised Dec. 17, 2008; accepted Jan. 8, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Colline Poirier, Bio-Imaging Laboratory, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium. Email: colline.poirier{at}ua.ac.be

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. L. Phan and D. S. Vicario Hemispheric differences in processing of vocalizations depend on early experience PNAS, February 2, 2010; 107(5): 2301 - 2306. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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