Peter Cook

@pfcook.bsky.social

168 Followers 154 Following

Associate Professor @marmamsci-ncf.bsky.social Studying memory, rhythm, vocal learning, and behavioral plasticity, and related brain, mostly in marine mammals, and most mostly in sea lions https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LfoEA4oAAAAJ&hl=en

Phylogeny, weaning time as a proxy for social complexity, brain connectivity, and call type across whale species.

Possible evolutionary emergence of accumulating vocal control adaptations across the pinnipeds. The midbrain voice box control pathway may be related to volitional breathing control (yellow). The Auditory-motor connections (orange) may be related to auditory vocal learning. The reward-based vocal learning connections (red) may support advanced vocal control, such as in mimicry.

Direct connections between auditory cortex (A1) and pre-vocal-motor cortex in the seals but not the sea lions

Direct pathways between vocal motor cortex (VMC) and the brainstem vocal motor output (N. Amb) passing the midbrain vocal control region (PAG) in all pinniped brains and none of the coyotes

White matter brain network of a California sea lion. Brain viewed from above with the front of the brain toward the top of the image. Green fibers run front-to-back, red fibers left-to-right, and blue fibers up-to-down.