From behavior to physiology and back again: The role of auditory cortex in vocal production and control

Vocal communication plays an important role in the lives of both humans and many animal species. Ensuring accurate communication, however, requires auditory self-monitoring to control vocal production and rapidly compensate for errors in vocal output. Despite the importance of this process, the underlying neural mechanisms are relatively unknown. Previous work has demonstrated that neurons in the auditory cortex are suppressed during vocal production, while simultaneously maintaining their sensitivity to vocal feedback, suggesting a role in auditory self-monitoring. The behavioral role of auditory cortex in vocal control, however, remains unclear. We investigated the function of auditory cortical activity during vocal self-monitoring and feedback-dependant vocal control in marmoset monkeys. Using real-time frequency-shifted feedback during vocalization, we demonstrate that marmosets exhibit rapid compensatory changes in vocal production, a feedback-dependent behavior that is predicted by the activities of neurons in auditory cortex. We further establish the role of auditory cortex in vocal control using electrical microstimulation to evoke rapid changes in produced vocalizations. These findings suggest a causal role for the auditory cortex in vocal self-monitoring and feedback-dependent vocal control, linking mechanisms of production and perception, and have important implications for understanding human speech motor control.