Steroid modulation of a rhythmic vocal pattern generator

描述(申请人提供)：在许多脊椎动物的求爱过程中，声音交流是必不可少的。对硬骨鱼的研究提供了相当多的证据，表明发声是由不同的神经回路控制的，这些神经回路显示出季节性和性别差异，对循环中的类固醇激素水平做出反应。此前的活体研究也表明，类固醇可以引起“虚构发声”的快速变化。这项应用将重点放在位于后脑-脊髓区域的硬骨鱼发声模式生成器上，因为它为确定类固醇激素如何调节起搏器和运动神经元的特性而在社会背景下导致发声提供了最简单的脊椎动物准备。随着体外制剂的发展，将使用电生理学方法在这些已识别神经元的固有膜特性水平上描述类固醇诱导的发声模式的变化。本研究的中心目标是了解类固醇激素如何通过核激素受体介导的快速、非基因组机制和长时间作用机制来调节神经元膜特性的变化，从而调节声音交流中高度刻板的声音的产生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Vocal communication is essential for courtship among many vertebrates. Studies in teleost fish provide considerable evidence that vocalizations are controlled by distinct neural circuits which show seasonal and sex differences in response to circulating levels of steroid hormones. Prior in vivo work has also shown that steroids can induce rapid changes in 'fictive vocalization.' This application will focus on the teleost vocal pattern generator located in the hindbrain-spinal region since it provides the simplest vertebrate preparation for determining how steroid hormones modulate the properties of pacemaker and motor neurons that lead to vocalization within a social context. An electrophysiological approach will be used to describe steroid-induced changes in vocal patterning at the level of intrinsic membrane properties of these identified neurons with the development of an in vitro preparation. The central goal of this research is to understand how steroid hormones modulate the production of highly stereotyped sounds for vocal communication by mediating changes in neuronal membrane properties via both rapid, non-genomic mechanisms and longer acting mechanisms mediated by nuclear hormone receptors.