Vocalization-whisking coordination and multisensory integration of social signals in rat auditory cortex.
Vocalization-whisking coordination and multisensory integration of social signals in rat auditory cortex.
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DOI：
10.7554/elife.03185
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发表时间：
2014-12-08
期刊：
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Brecht M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rao RP;Mielke F;Bobrov E;Brecht M
社会互动涉及多模态信号。本研究以交互作用大鼠为研究对象，探讨听觉皮层的听-触觉协调和多感觉整合。我们发现，面部触摸与超声发声率的增加有关，超声发声率以搅拌速率（~ 8 Hz）发出，并优先在搅拌的收缩阶段启动。在一小部分听觉皮层的规则尖峰神经元中，我们观察到对超声波发声的兴奋性和异质性反应。大多数快速尖峰神经元对呼叫表现出更强烈的反应。有趣的是，面部触摸引起的初级听觉皮层抑制和触摸终止后的关闭反应比发声反应强两倍。此外，触觉调节了听觉皮层神经元对超声波发声的反应。总而言之，社交互动中的面部触碰包含了精确编排的呼唤声模式。虽然超声波发声引起的普通尖峰的群体反应相当微弱，但面部触摸对神经元反应的调节却非常强烈。DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03185.001老鼠是高度社会化的生物，喜欢生活在一个已建立的等级制度中的大群体中。社会互动的范围从玩耍、交配、亲代照顾到攻击性和支配性的表现，包括使用气味、触摸和声音呼叫。触摸通常采用鼻子对鼻子的接触形式，而大多数发声是超声波，不同频率的叫声用于表示警报或愉悦。迄今为止，大多数关于老鼠发声的研究都涉及到对麻醉动物的录音呼叫回放，相对而言，人们对自由移动的老鼠如何对呼叫做出反应知之甚少。Rao等人现在已经解决了这个问题，他们录制了大鼠与其他动物或物体互动的视频片段，然后使用电极记录这些大鼠大脑中的信号。视频片段显示，老鼠在社交互动中发出的声音比在非社交互动中发出的声音要多。此外，叫声的爆发似乎标志着鼻子对鼻子接触的开始和结束，这表明啮齿动物的交流涉及到触觉和声音线索的协调使用。令人惊讶的是，大脑中对声音有反应的部分——听觉皮层的电极记录显示，该区域的大多数神经元对超声波呼叫没有反应。然而，一种被称为快速脉冲神经元的神经元确实对这些呼叫做出了强烈反应。Rao等人的研究表明，在感官信息处理的早期，来自多个感官的信息被直接组合在一起。究竟为什么触觉刺激会抑制听觉皮层尚不清楚，但有证据表明，这可能会增加老鼠对声音的敏感性。需要进一步的实验来验证这种可能性，并确定来自多种感官的信息整合如何影响啮齿动物的行为。这将帮助我们理解大脑是如何通过不同的感官通道产生连贯的社会行为的。DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03185.002
Social interactions involve multi-modal signaling. Here, we study interacting rats to investigate audio-haptic coordination and multisensory integration in the auditory cortex. We find that facial touch is associated with an increased rate of ultrasonic vocalizations, which are emitted at the whisking rate (∼8 Hz) and preferentially initiated in the retraction phase of whisking. In a small subset of auditory cortex regular-spiking neurons, we observed excitatory and heterogeneous responses to ultrasonic vocalizations. Most fast-spiking neurons showed a stronger response to calls. Interestingly, facial touch-induced inhibition in the primary auditory cortex and off-responses after termination of touch were twofold stronger than responses to vocalizations. Further, touch modulated the responsiveness of auditory cortex neurons to ultrasonic vocalizations. In summary, facial touch during social interactions involves precisely orchestrated calling-whisking patterns. While ultrasonic vocalizations elicited a rather weak population response from the regular spikers, the modulation of neuronal responses by facial touch was remarkably strong. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03185.001 Rats are highly social creatures, preferring to live in large groups within an established hierarchy. Social interactions range from play, mating, and parental care to displays of aggression and dominance and involve the use of odors, touch, and vocal calls. Touch typically takes the form of snout-to-snout contact, while most vocalizations are ultrasonic, with calls of different frequencies used to signal alarm or pleasure. To date, most studies of rat vocalizations have involved playback of recorded calls to anaesthetized animals, and relatively little is known about how freely moving rats respond to calls. Rao et al. have now addressed this question by recording video footage of rats interacting with other animals or with objects and then using electrodes to record signals in the brains of these rats. The video footage revealed that rats produce more vocal calls during social interactions than they do during non-social interactions. Moreover, bursts of calls appear to signal the beginning and end of bouts of snout-to-snout contact, suggesting that rodent communication involves the coordinated use of both tactile and vocal cues. Surprisingly, electrode recordings from the part of the brain that responds to sound—the auditory cortex—revealed that most neurons in this region did not respond to ultrasonic calls. However, a type of neuron called a fast-spiking neuron did respond strongly to these calls. The work of Rao et al. shows that information from multiple senses is directly combined early in the processing of sensory information. Exactly why tactile stimuli should inhibit the auditory cortex is not clear, but there is some evidence that this may increase the rat's sensitivity to sounds. Further experiments are required to test this possibility and to determine how integrating information from multiple senses affects rodent behavior. This will help us to understand how the brain generates coherent social behaviour from signals arriving through distinct sensory channels. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03185.002
影响因子：
16.2
作者：
Shamma SA
通讯作者：
Shamma SA