Sensory substitution reveals a manipulation bias

Anja T Zai (1, 2) , Sophie Cavé-Lopez (1) , Manon Rolland (3) , Nicolas Giret (3) , Richard H. R. Hahnloser (1, 2)

1 INI - Institute of Neuroinformatics [Zürich]
2 Neuroscience Center Zurich
3 NeuroPSI - Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay

Sensory substitution is a promising therapeutic approach for replacing a missing or diseased sensory organ by translating inaccessible information into another sensory modality. What aspects of substitution are important such that subjects accept an artificial sense and that it benefits their voluntary action repertoire? To obtain an evolutionary perspective on affective valence implied in sensory substitution, we introduce an animal model of deaf songbirds. As a substitute of auditory feedback, we provide binary visual feedback. Deaf birds respond appetitively to song-contingent visual stimuli, they skillfully adapt their songs to increase the rate of visual stimuli, showing that auditory feedback is not required for making targeted changes to a vocal repertoire. We find that visually instructed song learning is basal-ganglia dependent. Because hearing birds respond aversively to the same visual stimuli, sensory substitution reveals a bias for actions that elicit feedback to meet animals’ manipulation drive, which has implications beyond rehabilitation.

11 Sensory substitution is a promising therapeutic approach for replacing a missing or diseased sensory 12 organ by translating inaccessible information into another sensory modality. What aspects of 13 substitution are important such that subjects accept an artificial sense and that it benefits their 14 voluntary action repertoire? To obtain an evolutionary perspective on affective valence implied in 15 sensory substitution, we introduce an animal model of deaf songbirds. As a substitute of auditory 16 feedback, we provide binary visual feedback. Deaf birds respond appetitively to song-contingent visual 17 stimuli, they skillfully adapt their songs to increase the rate of visual stimuli, showing that auditory 18 feedback is not required for making targeted changes to a vocal repertoire. We find that visually 19 instructed song learning is basal-ganglia dependent. Because hearing birds respond aversively to the 20 same visual stimuli, sensory substitution reveals a bias for actions that elicit feedback to meet animals' 21 manipulation drive, which has implications beyond rehabilitation. 22 23 All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.

Domaines: Neurobiologie

Anja T Zai, Sophie Cavé-Lopez, Manon Rolland, Nicolas Giret, Richard H. R. Hahnloser. Sensory substitution reveals a manipulation bias. Nature Communications, 2020, 11 (1), pp.5940. ⟨10.1038/s41467-020-19686-w⟩. ⟨hal-02993204⟩