Physiological Correlates And Neural Mechanisms Of Vocal

Z01 HD 001123 LCE和Z01 HD 001124 LCE是合作项目，共同研究灵长类动物的听觉交流。这些研究的总体目标是从发育、神经机制、内分泌因素和社会环境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，松鼠猴和普通狨猴，是研究的主要对象，并在适当情况下从其他物种收集额外数据。该项目之前的工作表明，人类婴儿哭声的功能和声学等效声音的产生是由位于大脑皮层额叶前中线的边缘皮层介导的，并且听觉皮层（颞上回）中的单个神经元素对物种特定发声的声学结构的细微差异特别敏感。表明在调节个体差异（声音特征）中起重要作用。今年的新发现是：基因c-fos及其蛋白产物Fos已被用于标记在一段时间的强烈行为活动后活动增加的神经区域。研究了c-fos在狨猴幼脑中的表达。这个范例包括将个体分开30分钟，记录下？隔离电话吗?将它们放回笼子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7只个体，2只在1、2和3月龄时，1只作为对照（未分开）。使用显微镜和机动平台，切片以100倍放大成像，然后以小增量数字化，使每个切片保存200-700张图像。每张图像都使用一个软件程序进行计数，该软件程序选择强标记的细胞，同时跳过伪影和弱标记。在婴儿大脑的许多部位发现了强标签。特别值得注意的是，在成年猴子身上发现的被强烈标记的区域在婴儿身上也被强烈标记。特别是，在1个月大的时候，前额叶中线皮层的前扣带回就有大量的标记细胞。这些结果表明，c-fos免疫细胞化学是一种可以使用相同的行为范式来证明成年人活跃的大脑区域的功能参与的方法。在第二项研究中，对狨猴的大脑图谱进行了进一步的研究。来自雌性狨猴大脑的标签（结构名称）与现存但已绝版的狨猴大脑图谱进行了比对，此外，还拍摄了雄性狨猴大脑的切片照片，以及在水平面上切割的切片照片。我们与NINDS的Afonso Silva博士继续合作，今年将来自组织学图谱的图像与Silva博士实验室收集的狨猴MRI图像进行比对。组织学图谱允许在MRI图像中详细识别特定结构。

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.