Tonotopic organization in the avian telencephalon
- Creators
- Zaretsky, Malcolm D.
- Konishi, Masakazu
Abstract
The mammalian and avian auditory pathways have distinctly homologous cell groupings. Tonotopic organization has been demonstrated by means of single unit recordings in the cochlear nuclei of both birds and mammals. The avian thalamic nucleus ovoidalis, the homolog of the mammalian medial geniculate body, has a discrete projection to an area of the telencephalic neostriatum caudale, field L (see ref. 6, 17). Although the primary projection of the ascending auditory pathway to the telencephalon of mammals has been shown to have a tonotopic organization, single unit recordings from neither field L of the ring dove nor that of the starling have produced evidence for a tonotopic organization of individual neurons of the avian telencephalon. The absence of tonotopic organization in field L of birds would appear to underscore the dissimilarities between the gross characteristics of field Land primary auditory cortex. We wish to report, however, an initial set of experiments using single unit recordings in a song bird, the zebra finch, which define a point-by-point projection from the avian cochlea to the auditory area of the telencephalon, the first such demonstration in a sensory pathway of an infra-mammalian vertebrate.
Additional Information
© 1972 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company. Accepted 6 April 1976. This work was supported by U.S. National Science Foundation Grant GB 12729 and a Spencer Foundation fellowship to M. D. Zaretsky (1973-1975).Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 62383
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20151124-132904678
- GB 12729
- NSF
- Spencer Foundation
- Created
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2015-11-24Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field