Own-Song Recognition in the Songbird Auditory Pathway: Selectivity and Lateralization

The songbird brain is able to discriminate between the bird's own song and other conspecific songs. Determining where in the brain own-song selectivity emerges is of great importance because experience-dependent mechanisms are necessarily involved and because brain regions sensitive to self-generated vocalizations could mediate auditory feedback that is necessary for song learning and maintenance. Using functional MRI, here we show that this selectivity is present at the midbrain level. Surprisingly, the selectivity was found to be lateralized toward the right side, a finding reminiscent of the potential right lateralization of song production in zebra finches but also of own-face and own-voice recognition in human beings. These results indicate that a midbrain structure can process subtle information about the identity of a subject through experience-dependent mechanisms, challenging the classical perception of subcortical regions as primitive and nonplastic structures. They also open questions about the evolution of the cognitive skills and lateralization in vertebrates.