CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

How vocal communication signals are represented in the cortex is a major challenge for behavioral neuroscience. Beyond a descriptive code, it is relevant to unveil the dynamical mechanism responsible for the neural representation of auditory stimuli. In this work, we report evidence of synchronous neural activity in cortical neurons of songbirds, in response to auditory playback of the bird?s own song. The rhythmic features of canary (Serinus canaria) song allowed us to show that this synchronization was locked to defined frequencies and phases of the vocal behavior. We recorded neurons in a brain region where sensorimotor integration occurs, showing that these neurons are activated at specific temporal instances of the song.