Functional specificity of vocalizations elicited by electrical brain stimulation in the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

All presently known naturally occurring call types, except those associated with dominance threat, were elicited with electrical brain stimulation in the turkey. Most vocalizations closely resembled contact and alarm cells. A concentration of sites for contact calls was in the dorsomedial thalamus and midbrain. Mechanical-sounding contact-type calls were elicited from sites in the central neostriatum caudale and paleostriatum primitivum. Vocalization specificity and latency indicate that the lateral mesencephalic grey may be an area of convergence of some efferent vocalization fibers. Anomalous vocalizations were elicited only in one site in the hyperstriatum ventrale. Singing was elicited reliably in the absence of any known key stimulus. Most of these vocalizations resembled the singing of nonstimulated turkeys in the natural situation. The major exception was that mesencephalic-grey-stimulation-elicited vocalizations were shorter in duration. Gobbling was elicited from two sites in sensory projection areas of the brain. Elicited gobbles were similar to natural calls except for the relative frequency of occurrence of certain syllables and the rapid habituation to brain stimulation.