Description du projet
Étudier les neurones corticaux pendant les vocalisations innées
La quasi-totalité des mammifères emploie les vocalisations pour communiquer. De récentes études chez des primates non humains indiquent que certains neurones du cortex préfrontal ventrolatéral et du cortex cingulaire antérieur sont très actifs avant et pendant l’émission vocale innée. Toutefois, la plupart des outils génétiques nécessaires pour cartographier, surveiller et manipuler les neurones corticaux actifs pendant les vocalisations innées ne sont pas applicables aux singes et aux rats. La relation anatomique et fonctionnelle entre ces circuits neuronaux pertinents à la configuration des vocalisations innées reste donc inconnue. Le projet CCINB, financé par l’UE, entend identifier les neurones C2 et les PLC actifs pendant les vocalisations ultrasoniques, et examiner leur interaction avec les circuits vocaux sous-corticaux. À cette fin, ils exploiteront le vaste éventail d’outils physiologiques et génétiques disponibles pour la souris. Le projet permettra de mieux comprendre les vocalisations innées chez les mammifères.
Objectif
Vocalization is an essential medium for communication in almost all mammalian species, including our own. Vocal patterns can be either learned, as with human speech, or innate, as the various affiliative and agonistic vocalizations produced by mammals. A major unresolved issue is the relationship between ancestral mammalian circuits for innate vocalizations and the derived circuitry that enables vocal learning. One hypothesis is that motor cortical structures are also active during innate vocalizations, and interact with subcortical vocal circuits important to vocal patterning, thus providing the architectural foundation from which learned vocalizations evolved. In support of this idea, recent studies in non-human primates show that certain neurons in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex are highly active before and during innate vocal production. Perhaps even more surprisingly, a very recent study found a strong involvement of prelimbic cortex and cingulate area 2 in the production of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in rats. Nonetheless, most of the advanced genetic tools necessary to map, monitor, and manipulate the cortical neurons active during innate vocal behaviors are not applicable in monkeys and rats. Thus, the functional and anatomical relationship between these neuronal circuits important to innate vocal patterning remain unknown. Here, we propose to exploit the wide range of genetic and physiological tools available in the mouse, including the ability to optogenetically elicit USVs in head-fixed mice, to identify PLC and C2 neurons that are active during USV production and explore how they interact with subcortical vocal circuits.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
6020 Innsbruck
Autriche