Time course of auditory response in the song control system of the Bengalese finch

Songbirds sing complex, learned sequential utterance as communication signals [1], with an aid of auditory feedback [2]. To investigate the mechanisms of realtime song production and auditory-motor interaction [3], we measured auditory response latency in 5 telencephalic nuclei. Response latency was ordered as in the anatomical hierarchy in this system. At the nucleus where the direct and recursive information merges, there were two peaks of auditory reaction times. Together with the motor commands, neural pulses at 3 different timings are simultaneously processed in the songbird vocal control system to enable singing.