Electrophysiological mismatch response recorded in awake... : NeuroReport (original) (raw)

INTEGRATIVE SYSTEMS

Electrophysiological mismatch response recorded in awake pigeons from the avian functional equivalent of the primary auditory cortex

Schall, Ulricha,b,c; Müller, Bernhard W.d,e,f; Kärgel, Christianf; Güntürkün, Onurg

aPriority Centre for Translational Neuroscience & Mental Health Research, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan

bSchizophrenia Research Institute, Sydney

cHunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, Australia

dDepartment of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal

eDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, LVR-Hospital Essen

fInstitute of Forensic Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen

gInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Biological Psychology, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Correspondence to Ulrich Schall, Priority Centre for Translational Neuroscience & Mental Health Research, The University of Newcastle, Mater Hospital, McAuley Centre, Waratah New South Wales 2298, Australia Tel: +61 2 40335727; fax: +61 2 40335692; e-mail: [email protected]

Received November 17, 2014

Accepted January 2, 2015

Abstract

The neural response to occasional variations in acoustic stimuli in a regular sequence of sounds generates an _N_-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-modulated event-related potential in primates and rodents in the primary auditory cortex known as mismatch negativity (MMN). The current study investigated MMN in pigeons (Columba livia L) through intracranial recordings from Field L of the caudomedial nidopallium, the avian functional equivalent of the mammalian primary auditory cortex. Auditory evoked field potentials were recorded from awake birds using a low-frequency (800 Hz) and high-frequency (1400 Hz) deviant auditory oddball procedure with deviant-as-standard (flip-flop design) and multiple-standard control conditions. An MMN-like field potential was recorded and blocked with systemic 5 mg/kg ketamine administration. Our results are similar to human and rodent findings of an MMN-like event-related potential in birds suggestive of similar auditory sensory memory mechanisms in birds and mammals that are homologue from a common ancestor 300 million years ago or resulted from convergent evolution.