Primate phonation: Anterior cingulate lesion effects on response rate and acoustical structure

Four juvenile rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) that were conditioned to emit a discriminative vocal response underwent unilateral and bilateral lesions of anterior cingulate gyrus in stepwise sequence. Pre‐ and post‐lesion measures of vocal response rate and acoustical features (call duration, amplitude, and fundamental frequency) were obtained for the conditioned task and for vocalization in the home colony (spontaneous vocalization). Unilateral lesions produced little consistent change in spontaneous “coo” vocalization rate and call duration. Conditioned vocalization of the monkeys exhibited no significant change in rate at this stage, although call duration was reduced significantly. Bilateral lesions produced no further modifications in acoustic properties of spontaneous calls, while the vocal rate decreased slightly. Conditioned calls were not significantly altered in acoustic features at this stage, although the discriminative vocalization rate was significantly decreased for all monkeys. The results indicate limited control over vocal motor systems by anterior cingulate cortex, while suggesting that this region participates in initiation of voluntary phonation.

[1]  P. Aitken.  Cortical control of conditioned and spontaneous vocal behavior in rhesus monkeys , 1981, Brain and Language.

[2]  R W BARRIS,et al.  Bilateral Anterior Cingulate Gyrus Lesions , 1953, Neurology.

[3]  C. Larson,et al.  Vocalization in rhesus monkeys: conditionability. , 1973, Brain research.

[4]  Peter G. Aitken,et al.  Discriminative vocal conditioning in rhesus monkeys: Evidence for volitional control? , 1979, Brain and Language.

[5]  A. Rubens.  Aphasia With Infarction in the Territory of the Anterior Cerebral Artery , 1975, Cortex.

[6]  M. J. Showers.  The cingulate gyrus: Additional motor area and cortical autonomic regulator , 1959, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[7]  C. Whitty,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF LESIONS IN THE CINGULAR GYRUS AND ADJACENT AREAS IN MONKEYS , 1950, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[8]  E. Crosby,et al.  Somatic and visceral responses from the cingulate gyrus , 1958, Neurology.

[9]  W PENFIELD,et al.  The supplementary motor area of the cerebral cortex; a clinical and experimental study. , 1951, A.M.A. archives of neurology and psychiatry.

[10]  U. Jürgens,et al.  The cingular vocalization pathway in the squirrel monkey , 1979, Experimental Brain Research.

[11]  C. Larson,et al.  Neocortical and limbic lesion effects on primate phonation. , 1974, Brain research.

[12]  D. Sutton,et al.  Brain mechanisms in learned phonation of Macaca mulatta , 1976 .

[13]  Nielsen Jm,et al.  Bilateral lesions of the anterior cingulate gyri; report of case. , 1951 .

[14]  R. Myers,et al.  Neural control of social behavior: prefrontal and anterior temporal cortex. , 1973, Neuropsychologia.

[15]  S. Green,et al.  Variation of Vocal Pattern with Social Situation in the Japanese Monkey (Macaca fuscata): A Field Study * , 1975 .

[16]  D. Sutton,et al.  Primate phonation: Unilateral and bilateral cingulate lesion effects , 1981, Behavioural Brain Research.

[17]  B. W. Robinson.  Vocalization evoked from forebrain in Macaca mulatta , 1967 .