Sensorimotor Integration (Sakata) Flashcards
What is sensorimotor integration?
The use of sensory information to modulate motor output.
What is particular with the OT of barn owls and sensory information processing?
OT neurons processing sensory information project to hindbrain area controlling head and neck muscles, therefore, sensory information is transformed into a motor command for head movement. When you stimulate different areas of OT, owls turn its head toward the receptive field of the neurons in that area.
What can affect timing and sequencing of speech?
If you change the sequence of the syllables heard or induce a time disparity between what is said and what is heard.
What experiment was done with songbirds to demonstrate that birds need to have auditory feedback to monitor their songs?
Song birds had to sing some syllables and some syllables were superposed on song (exp.) or not (control). They then looked at what were the following syllables finishing the song after the perturbation. Usually, 92% birds went from e-f-g and 8% from e-k-m in control while 72% went to e-f-g and 28% to e-k-m in exp. condition. If they induced a time difference, the interval time between e-f was significantly longer (155 ms in control, 165 ms in exp.).
What happens when you change the pitch of the auditory feedback in humans? Songbirds?
Humans: If the auditory pitch is lowered, voice pitch increase almost immediately and vice versa.
Songbirds: If the auditory pitch is lowered, voice pitch increase in the spanning of weeks and vice-versa.
How did they demonstrate the importance of HVC neurons in sensorimotor integration of songs in songbirds?
They first proved HVC neurons were active during singing. They then looked at HVC activity without perturbations of the song and with some and they saw a decrease in HVC activity after 20-60 ms (15-20% lower), proving HVC neurons are sensitive to auditory feedback during song production, so they integrate both sensory and motor information.
Why duet songs of plain-tailed wren prove that there is sensorimotor integration?
When a female sings alone, interval between A-B is longer and interval between D-A is shorter. When a male sings alone, interval from b-d is longer and d-b is shorter. Also, HVC activity is greater when bird is involved in a duet signing. When males were only hearing the duet, the pattern of activity of HVC was higher compared when they were only hearing their own syllables.
In sensorimotor integration of songbirds, what is happening in RA?
When they look at RA activity while performing the song vs. hearing it, they see similar patterns, as if it was singing it at the same time when it heard it.
What is the difference between active and passive sensing?
Active sensing = interact with self generated energy
Passive sensing = interact with energy coming from the environment.
What are the 3 types of bats?
Megachiropteran (fruits)
Microchiropterant (insect)
Blood feeders
How was echolocation discovered?
- at the end of 17’s, discovered that they didn’t need to see to be able to orient themselves, but needed to ear.
- 1940’s, discovered they were emitting ultrasonic calls to orient themselves (needed to have the calls emitted either through mouth or nose + audition to be able to do anything)
What is an harmonic?
A harmonic of such a wave is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the frequency of the original wave.
What is the type of sounds bat are emitting and why?
Bats are emitting ultrasounds because the object needs to be large compared to the wavelength of the sound. The sounds are really loud because they are naturally attenuated (spherical spreading loss) + absorbed by the atmosphere (collisions with air particles) and need to come back to the bat as well when they hit a target. The sound coming back is about 10 dB loud = rustling leaves in distance
How bats protect their ears from their loud sounds?
Muscles of inner ear contract to separate the ossicles to reduce hearing sensitivity but relax quickly to hear the echo.
Name an aspect of bat echolocation behavior that indicates that echolocation is a sensorimotor behavior?
The frequency of their call increase as they get closer to the target. The frequency is not really high at the beginning because it would be energetically costly to scream that much.
