Rod Suthers Lab

Neural and Physiological Bases of Acoustic Behavior

I am interested in the neural basis of behavior, particularly the neuroethology of acoustic communication. My research is primarily focused on the physiology of song production in songbirds and parrots. These two groups of birds have very different vocal organs and vocalabilities yet, together with humans, they are almost unique among animals in having a complex vocal communication in which learning plays an important role. By understanding how these vocalizations are produced and their role in communication, we hope to gain an insight into the significance of song diversity, its cost and benefit to the bird and the motor constraints which may limit the acoustic or temporal complexity of song. The exceptional vocal abilities of these birds enable us to investigate a number of basic problems related to the development and neural control of behavior. Some of these issues which are currently being studied in my lab include: the development and coordination of the diverse motor patterns during vocal learning; the role of vocal practice, analogous to human infant babbling,and of critical developmental periods in song learning; the relationship between the production, perception and the behavioral significance of various song elements; the significance of functional neural lateralization in the control of behavior. A long-term goal of our research on avian vocal communication is to bridge the gap between its underlying neural mechanisms and its behavioral ecology

Representative Publications:

Beckers, Gabriel J L, Roderick A. Suthers and Carel ten Cate.  2002. Mechanisms of frequency and amplitude modulation in vocalizing ring doves. Journal of Experimental Biology. In press

Suthers, Roderick A., Franz Goller and J. Martin Wild.  2002. Somatosensory feedback modulates the respiratory motor program of crystallized birdsong. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 99:5680-5685

Suthers, Roderick A.  2003. How birds sing and why it matters.In: Natures’ Music: the Science of Birdsong. Peter Marler and Hans Slabbekoorn, eds.  Academic Press, NY.  In press

Suthers, Roderick A. and Daniel Margoliash. 2002. Motor control of birdsong.  Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 12(6) In press

Suthers, R.A. 1990. Contributions to birdsong from the left and right sides of the intact  syrinx.  Nature 347:473-477

Suthers, R.A., Goller, F. and Hartley, R.S. 1994. Motor dynamics of song production by mimic thrushes. J. Neurobiol. 25:917-936

Suthers, R.A. 1994. Variable asymmetry and resonance in the avian vocal tract: a structural basis for individually distinct vocalizations. J. Comp. Physiol. A. 175:457-466

Allan, S.E., and Suthers, R.A. 1994. Lateralization and motor stereotype of song production in the brown-headed cowbird. J. Neurobiol. 25:1154-1166

Goller, F. and Suthers, R.A. 1995. Implications for lateralization of bird song from unilateral gating of bilateral motor patterns. Nature 373:63-66

Suthers, R.A., Goller, F. and Hartley, R.S. 1996. Motor stereotypy and diversity in songs of mimic thrushes. J. Neurobiol. 30:231-245

Suthers, R.A. 1997. Peripheral control and lateralization of birdsong. Journal of Neurobiology 33:632-652

Suthers, R.A. and Goller, F. 1997. Motor correlates of vocal diversity in songbirds. In: Current Ornithology. V. Nolan Jr., E. Ketterson and C.F. Thompson, Eds. Plenum Press, New York, Vol. 14, pp. 235-288