Topic: corticostriatal neurons

Perception of vocalizations is critical for many species. In mammals, the central auditory pathway is highly interconnected, with corticofugal feedback projections from auditory cortex (AC) to the auditory midbrain that rival the density of feed-forward auditory input. These projections support sound localization, feature coding, and noise invariance. Because vocalizations are acoustically complex and carry social significance, we hypothesize that feedback projections from AC enable behavioral responses. Infant vocalizations that elicit parental care are highly conserved in mammals. In mice, e

How does the brain derive meaning from social vocalizations and drive behavior in response? Vocalizations are temporally complex, requiring integration across multiple time-scales for appropriate contextualization. We hypothesize that corticofugal projections modulate temporal integration in feed-forward auditory circuits to facilitate this. We tested this using an ethological mouse behavior that depends on left auditory cortex. Mothers find and retrieve isolated pups into the nest when pups emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). Virgin females don’t usually retrieve pups, but learn after sever

Recent data in macaques showed that the laminar distribution pattern of corticostriatal neurons in the ipsilateral hemisphere largely varied across different areas, independently from density and projecting area, but likely according to the target striatal zone (Borra et al., JNeurosci 2021, 41:1455–69). Furthermore, other data showed that in macaque there are robust crossed corticostriatal projections to the caudate and the putamen (up to 30% of total labeled cells) and that the origin of the direct and the crossed corticostriatal projections is not symmetrical (Borra et al. JNeurosci 2022, 4