# Neural Coding and Perception of Learned Vocalizations

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE · 2020 · $338,270

## Abstract

Hearing and voice are the principal instruments of human communication. Early auditory experience of our
native language(s) shapes the way we hear for the rest of our lives. By 12 months of age, we have already
developed auditory perceptual skills around the speech phonemes we hear in social environments. This early
specialization of auditory processing facilitates sensorimotor integration as we learn to speak; accurate
phoneme discrimination in the first year of life is correlated with language proficiency years later. 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 developmental experience of vocal sounds shapes auditory processing and
perception for successful communication. While it is clear that the optimal time in life for language
development is limited to before puberty, we do not know why the young brain is particularly sensitive to
auditory-vocal experience or how vocal learning shapes auditory circuits in the service of communication. We
propose to integrate manipulations in vocal learning with measures of central auditory processing and behavior
to determine how early auditory-vocal experience shapes development of the auditory cortex and perception in
songbirds. The proposed experiments will identify neural mechanisms for experience-dependent development
of vocal communication. The significance of the proposed research to the NIH mission is three-fold. First, this
work will identify changes in auditory cortical processing that accompany milestones in normal vocal learning.
Second, the work will test the impact of delayed and impaired vocal development on auditory processing and
perception. Third, our results will provide insights into how experience manipulations and training can improve
prevention, diagnosis and treatment of developmental speech impairments such as those observed in children
with auditory spectrum disorders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9869880
- **Project number:** 5R01DC009810-10
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah M Woolley
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $338,270
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2008-12-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9869880

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9869880, Neural Coding and Perception of Learned Vocalizations (5R01DC009810-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9869880. Licensed CC0.

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