Physiological Correlates and Neural Mechanisms of Vocal Communication

Z 01 HD 01123-10 LCE和Z 01 HD 01124-10 LCE是一起研究灵长类动物听觉交流的同伴项目。 这些研究的总体目标是从发育、神经机制、内分泌因素和社会背景等方面全面了解灵长类动物的听觉交流。 两种非人类灵长类动物，松鼠猴和普通绒猴，是研究的主要对象，适当时从其他物种收集额外的数据。 在这个项目之前的工作表明，生产的声音是功能和声学相当于哭的声音在人类婴儿是介导的？边缘系统皮层位于大脑皮层额叶的前中线沿着，在听觉皮层（上级颞回）的单一神经元特别敏感的细微差别，在特定的发声声学结构，这表明在调解个体差异的重要作用（？声音签名？）。 内分泌机制的研究表明，内源性催乳素水平与婴儿检索试验中的携带时间相关，并且通过施用溴隐亭（多巴胺激动剂）来减少催乳素会破坏婴儿检索。 2000财年的新发现是：（a）通过外周给予阿片激动剂硫酸吗啡增加了幼年绒猴的游戏行为，而阿片拮抗剂纳洛酮则减少了幼年绒猴的游戏行为;（B）成年雌性松鼠猴的催乳素水平与它们与其群体中的婴儿进行的亲和行为数量显著相关（其中雌性松鼠猴充当？阿姨？婴儿出生的其他女性在组）;（c）大脑组织的新模式，？沟通的大脑？假设在所有陆地脊椎动物中发现的一套神经结构，并显示直接参与发声，经历了保守的进化历史，并在包括人类在内的广泛物种中介导相同的发声功能类别。

Z01 HD 01123-10 LCE and Z01 HD 01124-10 LCE are companion projects that together investigate auditory communication in primates. The overall goal of these studies is to provide a comprehensive understanding of primate auditory communication in terms of development, neural mechanisms, endocrine factors, and social context. Two non-human primates, the squirrel monkey and common marmoset, are the main subjects of study, with additional data collected from other species where appropriate. Prior work in this project has shown that production of sounds that are the functional and acoustic equivalents of cry sounds in human infants are mediated by ?limbic? cortex located along the anterior midline of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex, and that single neural elements in the auditory cortex (superior temporal gyrus) are particularly responsive to subtle differences in the acoustic structure of species-specific vocalizations, suggesting an important role in mediating individual differences (?vocal signatures?). Studies of endocrine mechanisms have shown that endogenous prolactin levels correlate with carrying time in infant retrieval tests, and that reducing prolactin by administering bromocryptine (a dopamine agonist) disrupts infant retrieval. New findings for FY2000 are (a) play behavior in juvenile marmosets is increased by administering the opiate agonist morphine sulfate peripherally, and decreased by the opiate antagonist naloxone; (b) prolactin levels of adult female squirrel monkeys are significantly associated with amount of affiliative behavior that they engage in with infants in their group (where the females serve as ?aunts? to the infants born to other females in the group); (c) a new model of brain organization, the ?communicating brain,? posits that a suite of neural structures found in all land vertebrates and shown to be directly involved in vocal production have experienced a conservative evolutionary history, and mediate the same functional categories of vocalizations in a wide range of species, including humans.