Auditory thalamus responses to guinea-pig vocalizations: a comparison between rat and guinea-pig.
Although neuronal responses to species-specific vocalizations have long been described, very few between-species comparisons have been made. In a previous study, a differential representation of species-specific vocalizations was found in the auditory cortex (ACx): marmoset ACx neurons responded more, and more selectively, to marmoset calls than did cat ACx neurons [Wang, X., Kadia, S.C., 2001. Differential representation of species-specific primate vocalizations in the auditory cortices of marmoset and cat. J. Neurophysiol. 86, 2616-2620]. The present study analyzed responses of guinea-pig and rat auditory thalamus neurons to four well-defined guinea-pig vocalizations. Neurons of guinea-pigs (n = 96) and rats (n = 87) displayed similar response strength to guinea-pig vocalizations, and did not exhibit a preference for the natural over the time-reversed version of the calls in both species. This difference with the study by Wang and Kadia might suggest that, in mammals, the selectivity for the natural version of species-specific vocalizations is prominent only at the cortical level.
Philibert
B
B
Neurobiologie de l'Apprentissage, de la mémoire et de la Communication (NAMC), UMR CNRS 8620, Batiment 446, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France.
Laudanski
J
J
Edeline
J-M
JM
D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D013045:Species Specificity; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*