Speech and our language learning majorly depend on the ability to evaluate how accurately we are able to produce particular sounds associated with speech. The close interactions between auditory and speech-related motor areas of the brain as always been thought to be the key agent behind learning vocalizations by aiding communications.
Now, in the light of a new discovery, scientists from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute have identified specific brain pathways involved in this process.
The research led by Dr. Roberts, uses a songbird to study how brain circuits help learn and control songs. During the study, they found a particular network of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex that sends a copy of vocal commands – what the bird intends to sing – to the auditory cortex. And as the birds hear themselves sing, the brain pathway helps them compare their produced sounds to what they intended to sing.
Further, they found that by disabling the neurons in this pathway impeded the ability to learn a new song in juvenile songbirds, and in adults, detected difficulty in being able to change the timing and tempo of the song they previously knew well.
Therefore, by mapping the neural processes and systems in
these songbirds that help them in vocalization, scientists hope to someday be able to target specific genes disrupting speech in patients with autism or other neurodevelopmental conditions.
