Physiological Correlates And Neural Mechanisms Of Vocal Communication

Z 01 HD 001123 LCE和Z 01 HD 001124 LCE是一起研究灵长类动物听觉交流的同伴项目。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动物的听觉交流。两种非人类灵长类动物，松鼠猴和普通绒猴，是研究的主要对象，适当时从其他物种收集额外的数据。在该项目中使用脑损伤方法的先前工作已经表明，作为人类婴儿中哭声的功能和声学等效物的声音的产生是由位于沿着大脑皮层额叶的前中线的边缘皮层介导的，听觉皮层中的单个神经元（上级颞回）对物种特异性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）中的重要作用。实验室的一项新举措采用免疫细胞化学来识别哭泣的婴儿和听到婴儿哭声的成年人中激活的神经元。 对幼年绒猴脑中c-fos表达进行了研究。 该范例包括将个体分离30分钟，记录分离期间发出的叫声，将它们放回笼中1小时，然后对它们实施安乐死，并使用免疫细胞化学处理它们固定的大脑以获得Fos。 特别值得注意的是，在成年猴子中发现的强标记区域在婴儿中也有强标记。 特别是，前扣带回，额叶中线皮层，有许多标记细胞，即使在1个月大。 这些结果表明，c-fos免疫细胞化学是一种方法，可以证明功能参与的大脑区域也活跃在成人使用相同的行为模式。 该实验室与NINDS功能和代谢成像实验室的研究人员合作开发的大脑图谱提供了识别包含大量Fos的特定结构的方法。 今年的一项新研究使用了类似的方法来识别成年听众在听到婴儿哭声时激活的神经元。 对3例男性大脑的分析表明，与MacLean边缘系统相关的结构，包括前扣带回、直回、隔、杏仁核和海马，都有大量的Fos标记细胞。 此外，听觉皮层所在的上级颞回也有丰富的标记。 使用来自雌性绒猴的MRI图像，在实验室的组织学脑图谱中识别和标记的结构也在MRI图像中识别（与组织学图谱中的板紧密匹配），使得在功能性MRI研究中更准确地识别绒猴大脑中的结构成为可能。

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 using brain lesioning methodology 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). A new initiative in the laboratory employs immunocytochemistry to identify the neurons activated in crying infants and in adults hearing infant cries. A study of c-fos expression in infant marmoset monkey brains was conducted. The paradigm involved separating individuals for 30 minutes, recording the cry sounds 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. 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. A brain atlas developed in this laboratory in collaboration with investigators in the NINDS Laboratory of Functional and Metabolic Imaging provided the means to identify the specific structures containing large numbers of Fos. A new study this year used similar methods to identify the neurons activated in adult listeners upon hearing infant cries. Analysis of 3 male brains indicates that structures associated with the limbic system of MacLean, including the anterior cingulate gyrus, gyrus rectus, septum, amygdala and hippocampus, all have significant numbers of Fos-labeled cells. In addition, the superior temporal gyrus, where the auditory cortex is located, is richly labeled. Using MRI images from a female marmoset, structures identified and labeled in the lab's histological brain atlas were also identified in the MRI images (closely matched to the plates from the histological atlas), making it possible to more accurately identify structures in the marmoset brain in functional MRI studies.