Researchers say the auditory feedback exchanged between red-tailed wrens
Research on wrens has shown that for any good cooperation, partners must become literally one through sensory connections.
Eric Fortune, co-author of the study and a neuroscientist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
Duet wrens have a clear song structure that partners know in advance, but in the process, they must quickly coordinate their actions, receiving constant feedback.
During the work the team didneurophysiological recordings of four pairs of wrens as they sang solo and in duets: They further analyzed sensorimotor activity in the premotor region of the birds' brains, where specialized neurons for learning and music production are active.
Recordings have shown that when birds sing,sounded so similar that it sounded like the same bird was singing. The team then listened to recordings of the wren duo while they were in a sleep-like state. The birds were anesthetized with a drug that targets the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the wren brain that is also found in humans, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The drug transformed activity in the brain, from inhibition to bursts of activity when the wrens heard their own music.
These mechanisms are common or similar to thosewhat happens in our brain. The authors say the results provide new insights into how the brains of humans and other cooperating animals use sensory signals to act in concert with each other.
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