SGER: "Language-like" Areas for Audiovocal Communication in Bats

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Animal models of auditory communication are especially relevant for studies on auditory communication in infants who primarily engage in nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is the only means of communication in animals. An understanding of the cortical mechanisms for processing and integration of communicative sounds can provide insights into the cellular basis of human speech and how it evolved from the available neural circuitry. The proposed research will explore the role of the frontal cortex for audiovocal social communication in bats. We will develop and deploy a behavioral assay to examine how the absence of a frontal auditory field and the anterior cingulate affects the perception and production of social calls, e.g., broadband noisy syllables that are emitted during aggression. The behavioral assay will allow us to assess in a quantitative fashion the response to both normal and modified communication sounds in normal and brain-lesioned animals. Cortical lesions will be localized using magnetic resonance imaging technology and, if necessary, their functional inactivation will be confirmed using electrophysiological recording techniques. The acoustic structure ofvocalizations in animals with lesions in the frontal cortex and microstimulation of these areas in normal animals will examine the role of the frontal cortex in regulating the spectral and syntactic structure within communicative vocalizations. This research will provide new insights on the relationship, if any, of the frontal cortical areas in bats with the so called "language areas" associated with speech sound perception and production in humans.