The role of frontal lobe networks in cognitive control of monkey vocalizations

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Steffen Hage
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 255337796

• Final Report Year: 2019

Final Report Abstract

We were able to successfully establish the marmoset monkeys as a suitable animal model to study neuronal networks underlying cognitive control of vocal behavior. We revealed that the vocal behavior of marmoset monkeys seems to be controlled by a combination of flexible and more rigid mechanisms. We show that marmoset monkeys are able to call on command in response to arbitrary visual cues suggesting that the critical preadaptation being crucial for the evolution of human speech in the primate lineage, namely volitional control over the vocal apparatus exist in marmoset vocal behavior. Using the neurophysiological recording system, which has been established in my lab, we are now ideally positioned to investigate the neural substrate underlying cognitive vocal motor control in the next years.

Publications

• (2019) Cognitive control of complex motor behavior in marmoset monkeys. Nature communications 10 (1) 3796
  Pomberger, Thomas; Risueno-Segovia, Cristina; Gultekin, Yasemin B.; Dohmen, Deniz; Hage, Steffen R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11714-8)
• (2018) Auditory and audio-vocal responses of single neurons in the monkey ventral premotor cortex. Hear Res 366, 82-89
  Hage SR
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2018.03.019)
• (2018) Dual neural network model of speech and language evolution: new insights on flexibility of vocal production systems and involvement of frontal cortex. Curr Opin Behav Sci 21, 80-87
  Hage SR
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.02.010)
• (2018) The Lombard effect: from acoustics to neural mechanisms. Trends Neurosci 41, 938-949
  Luo J, Hage SR, Moss CF
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.011)
• (2019) Limited capabilities for condition-dependent modulation of vocal turn-taking behavior in marmoset monkeys. Behav Neurosci
  Dohmen D, Hage SR
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1037/bne0000314)
• (2019) Semi-chronic laminar recordings in the brainstem of behaving marmoset monkeys. J Neurosci Methods 311, 186–192
  Pomberger T, Hage SR
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2018.10.026)