MEDS 371

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MEDS 371 Human speech and animal vocal
communication Dr. Duck O. Kim
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zebra finches
female
male
www.sfu.ca/biology/wildberg/species/Zebraf.gif
zebra finch song
Click to hear sound
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spectrogram of a male zebra finch song
sequence of syllables -gt motif motif word
Purves Box 24-B
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spectrogram of humpback whale calls/songs
humpback whale calls/songs
A spectrogram of calls/songs by several
individual humpback whales Cornell Lab of
Ornithology
Click to hear sound
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spectrogram of a male mouse song
frequency (kHz)
Click to hear sound
time (sec)
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spectrograms of human speech
Doupe Kuhl 1999
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zebra finch song
human speech
freq. (kHz)
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chronology of song acquisition in zebra finches
Doupe et al., 2005
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Jarvis et al., 2005
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basal ganglia of mammal and bird
Doupe et al., 2005
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Model of the birdsong system plasticity (key
slide of this lecture)
auditory feedback (FB)
eval. aud. FB re template (basal gang.)
auditory system
instr. (error) signal
song production system (motor)
song
adapted from Brainard Doupe 2000
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the song system of zebra finch
area X basal ganglia DLM thalamus SNc/VTA
midbrain HVC, RA, LMAN cortex homolog RA
upper motor neurons
Doupe et al., 2005
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zebra finch song a normal adult
Doupe et al., 2005
The normal adult song consists of motifs of
a stereotyped sequence of syllables.
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zebra finch song area X lesioned in a juvenile
area X BG DLM thalamus SNc/VTA
midbrain others cortex homolog
Doupe et al., 2005
The song remains immature and highly variable.
normal song of zebra finch
abnormal song of deaf zebra finch
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Model of the birdsong system plasticity
auditory feedback
X
eval. aud. FB (basal gang.)
X
instr. (error) signal
aud. percep.
X
deafness
adapted from Brainard Doupe 2000
song motor system
song
X
deterioration
normal song of zebra finch
abnormal song of deaf zebra finch
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In adult humans and song birds, speech and song
deteriorate when deafness is encountered at an
adult age.
This is not the result of a passive process but
it reflects an active adaptive plasticity involvin
g the basal ganglia.
The basal ganglia mediates adulthood sensorimotor
adaptive plasticity.
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humanspeech / language
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Haines Fig 16-13
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large stroke in the right cortex neglect of left
body/space other symptoms
large stroke in the left cortex aphasia other
symptoms
Purves Fig 26-6
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PET imaging under various speech tasks
viewing words
speaking words
listening to words
generating word associations
Purves Fig 27-6
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three major types of aphasia

• Brocas aphasia
• Wernickes aphasia
• global aphasia

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Purves Table 27-1
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genetic deficit of speech function

• An inherited deficit in spoken language has been
  associated with a mutation in FOXP2 gene on
  chromosome 7.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging study has
  linked the deficit to underactivity in Broca's
  area during word generation.
• Possible link between FOXP2 and the mirror-neuron
  system observed in the primate homologue of
  Broca's area.
• This link might have implications for the
  evolution of Broca's area and its role in speech
  (a new gene).

Reference Vargha-Khadem et al. 2005. FOXP2 and
the neuroanatomy of speech and language. Nature
Rev 6 131-138.