# Neural coding and perception of learned vocalizations

> **NIH NIH R56** · COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE · 2024 · $507,676

## Abstract

Project Summary
Hearing and voice are the principal instruments of human communication. Early auditory experience of speech
organizes perception around native language(s) sounds for life. This early specialization of auditory processing
facilitates language development and predicts adult proficiency. While the acoustic features of speech sounds
differ across languages, the temporal structure of speech is constrained and hierarchical in all languages. An
important goal in the pursuit to understand how we acquire and use speech and what goes wrong when we can’t
use speech is determining how auditory encoding on multiple time scales relates to vocal communication
structure, vocal learning and perception. We propose to integrate manipulations in vocal learning with precise
measures of cortical auditory encoding and perceptual skills to determine the encoding properties that promote
flexible learning of syllable structure and constrain the temporal organization of syllables (syntax), in songbirds.
The proposed experiments will identify neural mechanisms whereby vocal communication behavior is both
learned and genetically-determined. The significance of the proposed research to the NIH mission is three-fold.
First, this work will identify auditory encoding capacities that support vocal learning. Second, the work will test
the limits of vocal learning to identify neural and perceptual mechanisms that impose structure on the acoustic
features and temporal organization of vocal communication behavior. Third, our results will provide insights into
how manipulations of experience and training can improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of speech
deficits such as those observed in children with auditory spectrum disorders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10899518
- **Project number:** 5R56DC009810-12
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah M Woolley
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $507,676
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2010-03-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10899518

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10899518, Neural coding and perception of learned vocalizations (5R56DC009810-12). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10899518. Licensed CC0.

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