The songbird auditory system offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role of auditory
processing in the perception of complex, learned vocal communication sounds. While all …

The songbird auditory system offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role of auditory
processing in vocal learning and communication. Vocal learning is defined here as imitating …

The ability to use speech and language is at the core of what it means to be human. How our
brains manage this cognitive feat and how it evolved in our species remain mysterious, in …

Understanding how the brain extracts meaning from communication sounds is a central
question in auditory research. Communication sounds distinguish themselves not only by …

Physiological studies in vocal animals such as songbirds indicate that vocalizations drive
auditory neurons particularly well. But the neural mechanisms whereby vocalizations are …

Vocal learning is usually studied in songbirds and humans, species that can form auditory
templates by listening to acoustic models and then learn to vocalize to match the template …

The avian auditory system has become a model system to investigate how vocalizations are
memorized and processed by the brain in order to mediate behavioral discrimination and …

Vocal communicators discriminate conspecific vocalizations from other sounds and
recognize the vocalizations of individuals. To identify neural mechanisms for the …

The selectivity of neurons in the zebra finch auditory forebrain for natural sounds was
investigated systematically. The principal auditory forebrain area in songbirds consists of the …

Human speech and birdsong share several important features. Both communication systems
entail large, acoustically rich repertoires of temporally patterned vocal signals, and both …