Coding the meaning of sounds: contextual modulation of auditory responses in the basolateral amygdala.

Title

Coding the meaning of sounds: contextual modulation of auditory responses in the basolateral amygdala.

Creator

Grimsley Jasmine M S; Hazlett Emily G; Wenstrup Jeffrey J

Publisher

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience

Date

2013
2013-10

Description

Female mice emit a low-frequency harmonic (LFH) call in association with distinct behavioral contexts: mating and physical threat or pain. Here we report the results of acoustic, behavioral, and neurophysiological studies of the contextual analysis of these calls in CBA/CaJ mice. We first show that the acoustical features of the LFH call do not differ between contexts. We then show that male mice avoid the LFH call in the presence of a predator cue (cat fur) but are more attracted to the same exemplar of the call in the presence of a mating cue (female urine). The males thus use nonauditory cues to determine the meaning of the LFH call, but these cues do not generalize to noncommunication sounds, such as noise bursts. We then characterized neural correlates of contextual meaning of the LFH call in responses of basolateral amygdala (BLA) neurons from awake, freely moving mice. There were two major findings. First, BLA neurons typically displayed early excitation to all tested behaviorally aversive stimuli. Second, the nonauditory context modulates the BLA population response to the LFH call but not to the noncommunication sound. These results suggest that the meaning of communication calls is reflected in the spike discharge patterns of BLA neurons.

Subject

Female; Male; Animals; Mice; Acoustic Stimulation/*methods; Auditory Perception/*physiology; Action Potentials/*physiology; Amygdala/*physiology; Cats; Animal/*physiology; Inbred CBA; Vocalization

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

17538–17548

Issue

44

Volume

33

Citation

Grimsley Jasmine M S; Hazlett Emily G; Wenstrup Jeffrey J, “Coding the meaning of sounds: contextual modulation of auditory responses in the basolateral amygdala.,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed March 28, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/4999.