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Coding of anuran vocalization by a single type of premotor neuron
Author(s) -
Yamaguchi Ayako,
Zornik Erik
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.lb693
Subject(s) - xenopus , neuroscience , electrophysiology , neuron , computer science , neural coding , motor neuron , motor control , communication , biology , psychology , spinal cord , biochemistry , gene
Motor programs are composed of movements that are coordinated with precise timing. For example, human speech involves very rapid movements that control articulation on a msec time scale. How are temporally precise motor programs generated by the nervous system? We addressed this question by conducting an electrophysiological experiment using vocalizations of African clawed frog ( Xenopus laevis ) as a model. The central vocal pathway of Xenopus is a tractable system that allows experimental manipulation while the brain is engaged in “fictive vocalizations” in vitro . Male Xenopus produce advertisement calls consisting of alternating fast and slow trills, each of which contains trains of clicks repeated at ~60 and 30Hz, respectively. Using patch‐clamp whole‐cell recordings, we discovered a type of premotor neuron that codes for both click rates and trill durations. The neurons, termed fast trill neurons (FTNs), show NMDA receptor‐dependent plateau potentials that coincide with the fast trill. Furthermore, the neurons fire a series of action potentials during the fast trill with each spike preceding motor output by ~4 msec. Interestingly, the FTNs exhibit both subthreshold oscillations and spike timing preference exactly at 60 Hz, the frequency of the fast trills. We conclude that complicated temporal patterns of Xenopus vocalizations can be encoded by the intrinsic properties of a single type of premotor neuron.