We are testing a new system for linking grants to scientists.
The funding information displayed below comes from the
NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools and the
NSF Award Database.
The grant data on this page is limited to grants awarded in the United States and is thus partial. It can nonetheless be used to understand how funding patterns influence mentorship networks and vice-versa, which has deep implications on how research is done.
You can help! If you notice any innacuracies, please
sign in and mark grants as correct or incorrect matches.
Sign in to see low-probability grants and correct any errors in linkage between grants and researchers.
High-probability grants
According to our matching algorithm, Ofer Tchernichovski is the likely recipient of the following grants.
Years |
Recipients |
Code |
Title / Keywords |
Matching score |
2001 — 2018 |
Tchernichovski, Ofer |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Behavioral Mechanisms of Vocal Imitation @ City College of New York
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The focus of this proposed research is developmental vocal learning, using the songbird as a model. Both humans and zebra finches acquire their vocal repertoire during early life by imitating adult conspecifics. This process has three prominent similarities in the two species: Vocal learning occurs during a sensitive period of development, during this period it relies on auditory feedback, and the vocal learning is facilitated by the presence of a mode of highly variable vocalizations, called babbling. In juvenile songbirds, distinct brain areas are dedicated to babbling, and these areas drive vocal exploration. In this application we propose to examine how vocal exploration guides changes in the songs produced, and how auditory feedback can be used to allow "self-improvement" of vocal patterns. Furthermore, we anticipate that understanding how the different layers of song structure develop might allow us to teach adult birds new songs, thereby overcoming the age constraints that normally prevent vocal learning in adult birds. To this end, we have designed new imitation tasks in which we guide the bird's imitation from one model song to another and determine the parameters of particular trajectories of imitation, recording and analyzing every vocalization the bird makes over the period of learning. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research will examine the role of babbling in developmental vocal learning using songbirds as a model of early speech development. We will try to achieve vocal learning in the zebra finch after the sensitive period for vocal learning is over. Our findings might lead to improved treatment of speech disorders induced by stroke, or as seen in developmental apraxia.
|
1 |
2010 — 2016 |
Tchernichovski, Ofer |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Development of Song Culture in Zebra Finches - Vocal and Sensory Changes Over Generations
Culture consists of traits transmitted through social learning. One example for social learning is the acquisition of song by songbirds: During a sensitive period early in life, young males learn to imitate their father's song. Songbirds provide tractable models of culture: Members of a species show individual variation in song, and geographically separated groups have local song dialects, i.e., a local song culture. How does song culture develop over multiple generations? In zebra finches, birds kept isolated during the sensitive period develop an abnormal (isolate) song. Interestingly, in an isolated colony founded by an isolate, "normal" songs with species-typical features emerge within 3-4 generations, due to biased imitation that gradually transforms the isolate song into the species-typical song. Understanding how song develops in individual birds and how song culture develops in a community might require knowledge not only about the vocal, but also about the sensory-perceptual development across generations, as well as the social interactions which accompany it. This project is a combined study of social, vocal, and sensory aspects of song development. The investigators will design controlled social environments to examine dynamically how song is acquired and how song culture emerges. They will combine the continuous analysis of vocal changes and social interactions with non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain to investigate how auditory brain responses to songs develop, and how they drive cultural changes. Moreover, these researchers will test if developmental changes in brain architecture correlate with observed vocal and/or sensory changes using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
This research will provide a bridge between studies of vocal and sensory changes and ethology studies of cultural changes in vocal communication. This project will contribute to the training of three graduate students, and provide scientific education and research training to undergraduate students as well as middle and high school students in the community.
|
0.975 |