NEURAL DISSOCIATION BETWEEN VOCAL PRODUCTION AND AUDITORY RECOGNITION MEMORY IN BOTHSONGBIRDS AND HUMANS

摘要

In the search for the neural mechanisms of vocal learning and memory,mammals are usually preferred to birds as model systems, because of theircloser evolutionary relatedness to humans. However, a recent overhaul of thenomenclature of the avian brain (Jarvis et al., 2005) has highlighted thehomologies and analogies between the avian and mammalian brain. In therevised interpretation of the avian brain it is suggested that the pallium(including the hyperpallium, mesopallium, nidopallium and arcopallium) ishomologous with the mammalian pallium, including the neocortex, but that it ispremature to suggest one-to-one homologies between avian and mammalianpallial regions. Within the avian forebrain, Field L2 receives auditoryconnections from the thalamus, and in turn projects onto Fields LI and Field L3.These two regions project to the caudal mesopallium and caudal nidopallium,respectively. Thus, the Field L complex appears to be analogous with primaryauditory cortex, in the mammalian superior temporal gyrus. In addition, theprojection regions of the Field L complex (the caudomedial nidopallium, NCMand the caudomedial mesopallium, CMM) may then be analogous with themammalian auditory association cortex.