Topic: motor circuits

To communicate effectively, two individuals must take turns to prevent overlap in their signals. How does the nervous system coordinate vocalizations between two individuals? Female and male plain-tailed wrens sing a duet in which they alternate syllable production so rapidly and precisely it sounds as if a single bird is singing. I will talk about experiments that examine the interaction between sensory cues and motor activity, using behavioral manipulations and neurophysiological recordings from pairs of awake, duetting wrens. I will show evidence that auditory cues link the brains of the wr