Vocalization-whisking coordination and multisensory integration of social signals in rat auditory cortex

Social interactions involve multi-modal signaling. Here, we study interacting rats to investigate audio-haptic coordination and multisensory integration in the auditory cortex. We find that facial touch is associated with an increased rate of ultrasonic vocalizations, which are emitted at the whiski...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2014-12, Vol.3
Main Authors: Rao, Rajnish P, Mielke, Falk, Bobrov, Evgeny, Brecht, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
auditory cortex
Auditory Cortex - physiology
Cortex (auditory)
Face
facial touch
Female
Firing pattern
Interpersonal Relations
Male
multisensory integration
Neuromodulation
Neurons
Neuroscience
Rats, Wistar
Sensation - physiology
Sensory integration
social interaction
Social interactions
Tactile stimuli
Time Factors
Touch - physiology
ultrasonic vocalization
Ultrasonics
Vibrissae - physiology
Vocalization, Animal - physiology
whisking
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Summary:Social interactions involve multi-modal signaling. Here, we study interacting rats to investigate audio-haptic coordination and multisensory integration in the auditory cortex. We find that facial touch is associated with an increased rate of ultrasonic vocalizations, which are emitted at the whisking rate (∼8 Hz) and preferentially initiated in the retraction phase of whisking. In a small subset of auditory cortex regular-spiking neurons, we observed excitatory and heterogeneous responses to ultrasonic vocalizations. Most fast-spiking neurons showed a stronger response to calls. Interestingly, facial touch-induced inhibition in the primary auditory cortex and off-responses after termination of touch were twofold stronger than responses to vocalizations. Further, touch modulated the responsiveness of auditory cortex neurons to ultrasonic vocalizations. In summary, facial touch during social interactions involves precisely orchestrated calling-whisking patterns. While ultrasonic vocalizations elicited a rather weak population response from the regular spikers, the modulation of neuronal responses by facial touch was remarkably strong.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/elife.03185