Cutting edge Seminar

Speaker:  Gen-ichi Tasaka (Laboratory for Comparative Connectomics, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research)

Title: Genetic access to vocalization-responsive neurons in mouse temporal association cortex reveals maternal plasticity of coding ultrasonic vocalizations

Date&Time:  19 Jan.  (Wed.) 2022, 12:00- 13:00

※This seminar can also be attended through ZOOM. Please check the URL on “HIGO Cutting-Edge Seminar” at Moodle.

https://md.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/course/view.php?id=90416

Abstract：

Mother-infant bonding develops rapidly following parturition and is accompanied by changes in sensory perception and behavior. In rodents, pups emit ultrasonic vocalization (USV) as cries of help when pups are out of the nest. Pup USVs induce mothers to retrieve pups and return them to the nest. There is increasing evidence that the primary auditory cortex (A1) is involved in maternal plasticity. However, the emergent circuit properties within A1 and other regions of the auditory pathway remain unknown. To understand the plastic changes mothers that undergo in processing USVs along the auditory hierarchy, we perfected the use of a variety of methods including mouse genetics, monosynaptic rabies tracing, chemogenetic silencing of neurons during behavior, and in vivo electrophysiology. A key method in our studies is a knock-in mouse that allows selective tagging of active neurons, called “TRAP”. Using this method, we introduced a way to gain genetic access to neurons based on their responses to sounds and revealed maternal plasticity in A1 (Tasaka et al., Nat. Commun., 2018). Exploiting the TRAP method further, we investigated a previously unexplored higher auditory region, called the temporal association cortex (TeA). We revealed that TeA is involved in the processing of pup calls by the mother and plays a key role in maternal behavior. Our study sheds light on the anatomical and functional role of the auditory system during motherhood (Tasaka et al., Neuron, 2020).