RUI: Mechanisms of selectivity to behaviorally relevant sounds in the auditory midbrain

许多动物使用特定的声音与自己物种的成员交流。这些发声与动物的行为相关，因为它们促进了重要的行为，如交配、维持领地或在觅食归来时寻找后代。当动物听到其中一种与行为相关的声音时，它必须根据声音中的信息做出适当的反应。要做到这一点，动物的听觉系统必须检测、辨别和分类每一种声音。这个项目的目标是了解听觉中脑中的神经元如何完成这些任务。下丘是上升听觉系统中单个神经元对发声做出选择性反应的第一个部位，但它们执行发声的机制尚不清楚。以前记录的雄鼠与雌鼠互动时发出的发声将作为刺激呈现给雌鼠。在抑制受体药物失活前后，将记录下丘单个神经元的反应，以测试抑制在形成对发声的反应中的作用。这项研究的重要性在于了解大脑进化成对行为相关信号做出最佳反应的方式。这项研究将增加对声音感知如何帮助动物生存的理解。该项目将产生各种更广泛的影响，包括为研究生和本科生提供培训机会。这些学生将接受神经生理学技术培训，并将通过小组与数学家的积极合作学习量化技术。这组合作者将为中学生开发和评估一门神经科学课程，包括声学通信、听觉系统和听力损失。这门课程将包括开发和评估替代媒体方法，如漫画和图形小说，用于神经科学的教学。

Many animals communicate with members of their own species using specific sounds. These vocalizations are behaviorally relevant to the animals because they facilitate important behaviors such as mating, maintaining a territory, or finding offspring on return from foraging. When an animal hears one of these behaviorally relevant sounds, it must make an appropriate response based on the information in the sound. To do this, the animal's auditory system must detect, discriminate, and categorize each of the sounds. The goal of this project is to understand how neurons in the auditory midbrain achieve these tasks. The inferior colliculus is the first site in the ascending auditory system where individual neurons respond selectively to vocalizations but the mechanisms by which they do this are not well understood. Previously recorded vocalizations that were emitted by male mice when they were interacting with females will be presented as stimuli to female mice. Responses of individual neurons in the inferior colliculus will be recorded before and after pharmacological inactivation of inhibitory receptors to test the role of inhibition in shaping responses to vocalizations. The importance of this research is in understanding the ways in which the brain has evolved to optimally respond to behaviorally relevant signals. This research will increase the understanding of how sound perception helps animals survive. A variety of broader impacts will result from this project, including training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. These students will be trained in neurophysiological techniques and will learn quantitative techniques through the groups active collaborations with mathematicians. This group of collaborators will develop and assess a neuroscience curriculum for middle school students, including units on acoustic communication, the auditory system and hearing loss. Included in this curriculum will be the development and assessment of alternative media methods, such as comics and graphic novels, for teaching about neuroscience.