Duets recorded in the wild reveal that interindividually coordinated motor control enables cooperative behavior

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 2577
• Main Authors: Hoffmann, Susanne, Trost, Lisa, Voigt, Cornelia, Leitner, Stefan, Lemazina, Alena, Sagunsky, Hannes, Abels, Markus, Kollmansperger, Sandra, Maat, Andries Ter, Gahr, Manfred
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.06.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 14/63; 631/378/2629/2631; 631/378/2632; 631/378/2645/2646; 631/378/3919; 631/601/18; 64; 9/97; Animals; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Birds; Cooperative Behavior; Cooperative control; Coordination; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laboratory animals; Learning; Male; Microphones; Motor Cortex - physiology; Motor task performance; multidisciplinary; Neurosciences; Rhythms; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensory integration; Singing; Social behavior; Song; Songbirds; Songbirds - physiology; Transmitters; Vocalization behavior; Vocalization, Animal - physiology
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10593-3

Many organisms coordinate rhythmic motor actions with those of a partner to generate cooperative social behavior such as duet singing. The neural mechanisms that enable rhythmic interindividual coordination of motor actions are unknown. Here we investigate the neural basis of vocal duetting behavior by using an approach that enables simultaneous recordings of individual vocalizations and multiunit vocal premotor activity in songbird pairs ranging freely in their natural habitat. We find that in the duet-initiating bird, the onset of the partner’s contribution to the duet triggers a change in rhythm in the periodic neural discharges that are exclusively locked to the initiating bird’s own vocalizations. The resulting interindividually synchronized neural activity pattern elicits vocalizations that perfectly alternate between partners in the ongoing song. We suggest that rhythmic cooperative behavior requires exact interindividual coordination of premotor neural activity, which might be achieved by integration of sensory information originating from the interacting partner. Recording neural activity during coordinated behaviors in controlled environments limits opportunities for understanding natural interactions. Here, the authors record from freely moving duetting birds in their natural habitats to reveal the neural mechanisms of interindividual motor coordination.