题目：Neural processing in hearing and producing vocalizations

报告人：Dr. Fukushima Makoto

Makoto Fukushima, Ph.D. is a researcher in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology of National Institute of Mental Health of National Institutes of Health. He got Ph.D and Master' degree in Psychology in University of Chicago, and got his Bachelor's degree in Physics in Waseda University, Japan. His research interest is Neural coding, Sensorimotor integration, Neuroethology, Auditory processing, Animal Vocalization, Statistical modeling, Nonlinear dynamics.

时间：2015年09月16日 星期三 13:00-15:00

地点： 北大王克桢楼1115室

The auditory cortex underlies our effortless ability to perceive and discriminate complex sounds such as natural vocalizations. Neural coding of natural sounds is one of the fundamental problems in systems neuroscience, and yet we have limited knowledge about the progression of neural representations from primary to higher auditory cortical areas. We addressed this issue in the auditory system of the macaque with electrocorticography (ECoG) arrays, allowing for simultaneous measurements of auditory evoked potentials over a large swath of primary and higher order auditory cortex in the lateral sulcus. The results demonstrated a progression in neural coding of conspecific vocalizations along the ventral auditory cortical pathway. This result also suggests a potential role of higher-order auditory cortex in coding harmonic calls, which could be related to ethologically relevant information such as individual identity. We thus evaluated caller identity cues in macaque vocalizations, by recording and analyzing a large number of calls from multiple m&111nkeys. I will further present our preliminary data of neural recording from the vocalizing macaque. Based on these data, I will discuss possible implications and perspectives for future studies.