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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.09.13.557594

Auditory corticofugal circuits drive vocalization-guided maternal behavior

Froemke, R.·LeMessurier, A.·Agha, A.
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Abstract

New parents become highly responsive to infant cries in parallel with auditory cortical plasticity enhancing representations of these calls. To promote caretaking behavior while controlling overall excitability, increased neural activity must be appropriately routed to downstream areas in combination with suppression of circuits that could promote aberrant behavioral responses. We investigated responses to multi-syllable mouse pup calls in cortical output neurons projecting to either the auditory striatum or auditory midbrain (inferior colliculus) using longitudinal 2-photon imaging and in vivo optically-tagged whole-cell recordings. Corticocollicular but not corticostriatal projections responded to pup calls over extended durations and were required for pup retrieval behavior, suggesting that these output units integrated multiple call syllables. The two populations diverged with parental experience, enhancing sustained responses in corticocollicular projections and reduced responses in corticostriatal projections. We performed simultaneous Neuropixels recordings from auditory cortex, thalamus, and midbrain to examine the temporal structure of call responses across areas and to dissect the influences of feedforward and feedback processing. Facilitation of later syllables increased in midbrain of maternally-experienced animals, together with reduced firing rates in a subset of units that were weakly coupled to cortical and midbrain activity. Overall, maternal experience leads to broad suppression of subcortical excitation in response to pup calls while selectively unmasking a subset of midbrain neurons that integrate over multiple syllables.

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Froemke, R., LeMessurier, A., Agha, A.. 2023-09-13. Auditory corticofugal circuits drive vocalization-guided maternal behavior. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.13.557594

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