Neural Encoding of Social Information

项目摘要/摘要 声音交流在塑造社会互动的动态方面起着关键作用，因此受到了损害 在广泛的神经性疾病中。因此，翻译研究的一个主要组成部分集中在 关于识别潜在的社会交流缺陷的电路水平神经生物学机制。确定 社交沟通障碍背后的神经机制需要理解 神经回路以及将神经回路与特定的自然主义行为联系起来的能力。然而，获得 由于很难解释复杂的行为相互作用，这些信息一直具有挑战性 在自由地对动物进行社交方面。这项研究的长期目标是了解神经回路控制 自然主义的社会行为直接受到沟通的影响。这最终可能允许交流 通过治疗靶向非典型功能的神经回路来治疗疾病。为了追求这一目标， 这项提案的总体目标是确定社交沟通是如何在神经中编码的 系统及其在塑造行为中所起的作用。该方案使用了一种新型的麦克风阵列系统来跟踪 自由社交的单个成年小鼠的发声行为--这项技术已经躲避了50年 好几年了。将这一创新方法与体内无线电生理学和机器学习相结合 用于可靠地提取有意义的社会信息的技术将使神经识别成为可能 对社会交流进行编码的电路以及交流在直接塑造社会交往中所起的作用 行为。目标1将测试这样一个假设，即小鼠发出依赖于行为的发声直接改变 动物之间的社会动态。目标2将检验这一假设，即行为依赖发声是 编码在海马区的CA2亚区。目标3将检验这样一个假设，即侧内嗅觉 皮层是CA2的主要皮层输入之一，在自我中心参照中编码发声的位置 画框。拟议的研究将产生广泛的影响，因为这些研究将提供对 社会交流的神经生物学基础。此外，这些实验将为 未来的研究将在神经性疾病的小鼠模型中检验社交交流的神经基础， 如精神分裂症、帕金森氏症和自闭症谱系障碍。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Vocal communication plays a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics of social interactions and is impaired in a wide range of neurological disorders. Consequently, a major component of translational research focuses on identifying circuit-level neurobiological mechanisms underlying social communication deficits. Determining the neural mechanisms underlying social communication deficits requires both understanding the functions of neural circuits as well as the ability to link neural circuits to specific naturalistic behaviors. However, obtaining this information has been challenging because of the difficulties in interpreting complex behavioral interactions in freely socializing animals. The long-term goal of this research is to understand the neural circuitry controlling naturalistic social behaviors directly influenced by communication. This could ultimately allow communication disorders to be treated by therapeutically targeting atypically functioning neural circuitry. In pursuit of this goal, the overall objective in this proposal is to determine how social communication is encoded in the nervous system and the role it plays in shaping behavior. The proposal uses a novel microphone array system to track the vocal behavior of freely socializing, individual adult mice—a technique that has eluded the field for 50 years. Coupling this innovative method with in vivo wireless electrophysiology and machine-learning techniques used for robustly extracting meaningful social information will enable identification of the neural circuits that encode social communication and the role communication plays in directly shaping social behavior. Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that mice emit behavior-dependent vocalizations that directly alter the social dynamics between animals. Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that behaviorally-dependent vocalizations are encoded in the CA2 subregion of the hippocampus. Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that the lateral entorhinal cortex, one of the primary cortical inputs to CA2, encodes the locations of vocalizations in egocentric reference frames. The proposed research will have a broad impact as these studies will provide fundamental insight into the neurobiological basis of social communication. Moreover, these experiments will lay the groundwork for future studies examining the neural basis of social communication in mouse models of neurological disorders, such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and autism spectrum disorders.