• Colline Poirier (Postdoc)
• Anne van der Kant (PhD student)

Rationale and Objectives

Birdsong is a good model of human speech because songbirds (Passeriformes oscines) learn to sing by imitating an adult conspecific, and song maintenance depends on auditory feedback. The brain circuitry involved in hearing, learning and producing songs is well documented in songbirds, which makes them an excellent model for studying the activity of brain regions during auditory tasks. Investigation of song processing in songbird brain improves our knowledge in the cognitive neurobiology of communication signals.

Methodology

The main technique we use is blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Functional MRI allows studying in vivo brain activity in the entire brain at once. It is also the main method used in humans to investigate the neural substrate studies of speech and language processing, facilitating comparison of results obtained in songbird and human brains.

Examples




Fig 1 : Neural substrates of own song recognition in the song control and auditory regions of the zebra finch brain (Poirier et al, 2009)



Fig 2 : Comparison of BOLD response in zebra finches under 3 different anesthetics (Boumans et al., 2007)



Funding

• GOA grant
• Franqui grant (CP)
• BOF grant (CP)
• FWO Postdoctoral Grant (CP)
• grant for ranked but non-financed candidates for a FWO-aspirant mandate (AK)
• FWO aspirant grant (TB and VVM)
• Krediet aan Navorsers (Dr. Poirier)

• J Martin Wild , University of Auckland, New Zealand. (e-mail)
• Frederic Theunissen, University of California Berkeley, United States. (e-mail)
• Manfred Gahr, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany. (e-mail)
• Timothy D Griffiths, Newcastle University, United Kingdom. (e-mail)
• Nicolas Mathevon, Paris-Sud/St-Etienne Universities, France. (e-mail)
• Martine Hausberger, EthoS, CNRS-University of Rennes 1, France. (e-mail)
• Johan J. Bolhuis, Utrecht University The Netherlands. (e-mail)
• Jacques Balthazart, University of Liège, Belgium. (e-mail)