Physiological Correlates And Neural Mechanisms Of Vocal

Z01 HD 001123 LCE和Z01 HD 001124 LCE是共同研究灵长类听觉交流的伙伴项目。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听觉交流。两种非人类灵长类动物，松鼠猴和普通绒猴是主要的研究对象，并在适当的情况下从其他物种收集额外的数据。该项目先前的工作表明，婴儿哭声的功能和声学等价物的产生是由位于大脑皮层额叶前中线的边缘皮质调节的，听觉皮质中的单个神经元件(颞上回)对物种特定发声的声学结构中的细微差异特别敏感，这表明在调节个体差异(声音特征)方面发挥着重要作用。今年的新发现：c-fos基因及其蛋白产物Fos被用来标记在一段时间的强烈行为活动后活动增加的神经区域。对幼猴脑内c-fos的表达进行了研究。这一范式包括将个体分开30分钟，记录隔离呼叫？在分离过程中，将它们放回家笼子里1小时，然后对它们实施安乐死，并使用免疫细胞化学对它们固定的大脑进行Fos处理。使用了7个个体，2个在1、2和3个月龄，1个对照组(未分开)。使用显微镜和电动工作台，切片以100倍的放大倍数成像，然后以小增量数字化，以便每个切片保存200-700张图像。每幅图像都使用一个软件程序进行计数，该程序选择强标记的细胞，同时跳过伪像和弱标记。在婴儿大脑的许多部位都发现了强烈的标签。特别值得注意的是，在成年猴子身上被发现强标记的区域在婴儿身上也被强标记。尤其是前扣带回，额叶的中线皮质，甚至在1个月龄时就有大量标记细胞。这些结果表明，c-fos免疫细胞化学是一种方法，可以用同样的行为范式显示成年人大脑活跃区域的功能受累。在第二项研究中，进一步研究了这只绒猴的脑图谱。来自女性大脑的标签(结构名称)与现有的但绝版的绒猴脑图谱进行了核对，此外，还拍摄了雄性绒猴大脑切片的照片，以及在水平面上切割的切片的照片。我们继续与NINDS的Afonso Silva博士合作，今年将组织图谱中的图像与从Silva博士实验室中的绒猴收集的MRI图像进行映射。组织学图谱可以对MRI图像中的特定结构进行详细识别。

Z01 HD 001123 LCE and Z01 HD 001124 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). New findings this year: The gene c-fos and its protein product Fos, have been used to mark neural regions of increased activity following a period of robust behavioral activity. A study of c-fos expression in infant marmoset monkey brains was conducted. The paradigm involved separating individuals for 30 minutes, recording the ?isolation calls? made during this separation, returning them to their home cage for 1 hour, then euthanizing them and processing their fixed brains for Fos using immunocytochemistry. Seven individuals were used, 2 at 1, 2, and 3 months of age and 1 control (not separated). Using a microscope and motorized stage, sections were imaged at 100 times magnification, then digitized in small increments so that 200-700 images per section were saved. Each image was counted using a software program that selects strongly labeled cells while skipping artifacts and weak labels. Strong label was found in many parts of the infant brain. Of particular note is that regions found to be strongly labeled in adult monkeys were also strongly labeled in infants. In particular, the anterior cingulate gyrus, midline cortex in the frontal lobe, had numerous labelled cells even at 1 month of age. These results indicate that c-fos immunocytochemistry is a method that can demonstrate functional involvement of brain regions also active in adults using the same behavioral paradigm. In a second study, further work was done on a brain atlas for the marmoset. Labels (structure names) from a female brain were checked against an existing but out-of-print marmoset brain atlas and, in addition, photographs of sections from a male marmoset brain were taken, along with photographs of sections cut in the horizontal plane. Our collaboration with Dr. Afonso Silva of NINDS was continued, this year mapping images from the histological atlas against MRI images collected from marmosets in Dr. Silva's laboratory. The histological atlas permitted detailed identification of specific structures in the MRI images.