The zebra finch auditory cortex reconstructs occluded syllables in conspecific song

Abstract

In the perceptual illusion known as phonemic (or auditory) restoration, listeners hear sounds occluded by short bursts of noise. The neural mechanisms that create this illusion by generating predictions of the missing information remain poorly understood. Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) use song, a sequence of complex vocal elements, to communicate in noisy social environments. Here, we found that in anesthetized finches, populations of single units in the homolog of auditory cortex respond to occluded songs as if the missing elements were present. This occurs even for songs birds have never heard, but not if the context is masked or lacks species-typical syntax. These results suggest that local neural dynamics pre-attentively instantiate a general model of conspecific song that biases auditory responses to restore missing information.