Neurophysiological coordination of duet singing

Abstract

Significance Cooperation, turn taking, and other social behaviors often depend on temporal coordination between individuals. How brains use sensory cues from participants to synchronize performances is not known. We examined the interactions between sensory cues and motor activity in the brains of female and male plain-tailed wrens that rapidly take turns to produce a duet that sounds as if a single bird is singing. We made simultaneous neurophysiological recordings from the brains of pairs of awake, duetting wrens. We discovered that inhibition driven by auditory feedback from the partner alternated with the premotor activity used by each individual to produce its own vocalizations. These data show how sensory feedback links the brains of cooperating animals through the modulation of motor circuits.

Topics & Concepts