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Assemblies of vertically connected neurons in the cerebral cortex form information processing units (columns) that participate in the distribution and segregation of sensory signals. Despite well-accepted models of columnar architecture, functional mechanisms of inter-laminar communication remain poorly understood. Hence, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effects of sensory information features on columnar response properties. Using acute recording techniques, extracellular response activity was collected from the right hemisphere of eight mature cats (felis catus). Recordings were conducted with multichannel electrodes that permitted the simultaneous acquisition of neuronal activity within primary auditory cortex columns. Neuronal responses to simple (pure tones), complex (noise burst and frequency modulated sweeps), and ecologically relevant (con-specific vocalizations) acoustic signals were measured. Collectively, the present investigation demonstrates that despite consistencies in neuronal tuning (characteristic frequency), irregularities in discharge activity between neurons of individual A1 columns increase as a function of spectral (signal complexity) and temporal (duration) acoustic variations. Multi-unit responses to acoustic signals within A1 columnsThe data set consists of eight multi-unit electrophysiology experiments located within a single .zip file. Acoustic feature (signal type and duration) are in subfolders where data rasters for each recording session conducted can be found. Columns represent time and rows trial number. Data is presented as Matlab files.DRYAD.zip

Entrainment of neural oscillations on multiple time scales is important for the perception of speech. Musical rhythms, and in particular the perception of a regular beat in musical rhythms, is also likely to rely on entrainment of neural oscillations. One recently proposed approach to studying beat perception in the context of neural entrainment and resonance (the “frequency-tagging” approach) has received an enthusiastic response from the scientific community. A specific version of the approach involves comparing frequency-domain representations of acoustic rhythm stimuli to the frequency-domain representations of neural responses to those rhythms (measured by electroencephalography, EEG). The relative amplitudes at specific EEG frequencies are compared to the relative amplitudes at the same stimulus frequencies, and enhancements at beat-related frequencies in the EEG signal are interpreted as reflecting an internal representation of the beat. Here, we show that frequency-domain representations of rhythms are sensitive to the acoustic features of the tones making up the rhythms (tone duration, onset/offset ramp duration); in fact, relative amplitudes at beat-related frequencies can be completely reversed by manipulating tone acoustics. Crucially, we show that changes to these acoustic tone features, and in turn changes to the frequency-domain representations of rhythms, do not affect beat perception. Instead, beat perception depends on the pattern of onsets (i.e., whether a rhythm has a simple or complex metrical structure). Moreover, we show that beat perception can differ for rhythms that have numerically identical frequency-domain representations. Thus, frequency-domain representations of rhythms are dissociable from beat perception. For this reason, we suggest caution in interpreting direct comparisons of rhythms and brain signals in the frequency domain. Instead, we suggest that combining EEG measurements of neural signals with creative behavioral paradigms is of more benefit to our understanding of beat perception. single participant behavioral data files.mat files for single participants. README.txt file in each zipped folder describes columnsdryad_data.zip

Juveniles of the cooperatively-breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher either consistently provide help in form of alloparental egg care ('cleaners') or consistently abstain from helping ('non-cleaners'). These phenotypes are not based on heritable genetic differences. Instead they arise during ontogeny, which should lead to differences in brain structure or physiology, a currently untested prediction. We compared brain gene expression profiles of cleaners and non-cleaners in two experimental conditions, a helping opportunity and a control condition. We aimed to identify (i) expression differences between cleaners and non-cleaners in the control, (ii) changes in gene expression induced by the opportunity, and (iii) differences in plasticity of gene expression between cleaners and non-cleaners. Control cleaners and non-cleaners differed in the expression of a single gene, irx2, which regulates neural differentiation. During the opportunity, cleaners and non-cleaners had three up-regulated genes in common, which were implicated in neuroplasticity, hormonal signalling, and cell proliferation. Thus, the stimulus in the opportunity was sufficiently salient. Cleaners also showed higher expression of seven additional genes that were unique to the opportunity. One of these cleaner-specific genes is implicated in neuropeptide metabolism, indicating that this process is associated with cleaning performance. This suggests that the two types employed different pathways to integrate social information, preparing them for accelerated reaction to future opportunities. Interestingly, three developmental genes were down-regulated between the control and the opportunity in cleaners only. Our results indicate that the two behavioural types responded differently to the helping opportunity, and that only cleaners responded by down-regulating developmental genes. Read count matrix and treatment information on individualsRead count matrix from RNA-seq experiment of two distinct helper types in the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher. 48 individuals in a 2x2 full-factorial design of cleaners and non-cleaners in control and opportunity. 38,2425 genes expressed in the telencephalon 45 min after the onset of the cooperation opportunity.data_Kasper_cichlid_helping_transcriptome.xlsx

Comparative studies have revealed that vasopressin-oxytocin pathways are associated with both pair bonding and grouping behaviour. However, the relationship between pair bonding and grouping behaviourremains unclear.In this study,our aim was to identify whether two species that differ in grouping behaviourdisplay a corresponding difference in their pair bonds, and in the underlying vasopressin-oxytocinhormonal pathways. Using two species of cichlid fishes, the highly social Neolamprologuspulcher and the non-social Telmatochromis temporalis, we measuredproximity of pairs during pair bond formation, and then measured social behaviors (proximity, aggression, submission,affiliation)and brain gene expression of isotocin and arginine vasotocin (the teleost homologues of oxytocin and vasopressin, respectively), as well as their receptors, after a temporary separation and subsequent reunion of the bonded pairs. Pairs of the social species spent more time in close proximity relative to the non-social species. Rates of aggression increased in both species following the separation and reunion treatment, relative to controls that were not separated.Overall, whole brain expression of isotocin was higher in the social species relative to the non-social species, and correlated with proximity, submission, and affiliation, but only in the social species. Our results suggest that both a social and a non-social cichlid species have similar behavioural responses to a temporary separation from a mate, and we found no differencein the brain gene expression of measured hormones and receptors based on our separation-reunion treatment. However, our results highlight the importance of isotocin in mediating submissive and affiliativebehaviourin cichlid fishes, and demonstrate thatisotocinhas species-specific correlations with socially relevantbehaviours. Cichlid pair bonding IT AVT dataRT-qPCR values and behavioral scores

For foveated animals, visual tracking of moving stimuli requires the synergy between saccades and smooth pursuit eye movements. Deciding to trigger a catch-up saccade during pursuit influences the quality of visual input. This decision is a trade-off between tolerating sustained position error when no saccade is triggered or a transient loss of vision during the saccade due to saccadic suppression. Although catch-up saccades have been extensively investigated, it remains unclear how the trigger decision is made by the brain. de Brouwer et al (2002) demonstrated that catch-up saccades were less likely to occur when the expected time to foveate a target using pursuit alone is between 40 and 180ms into the future, referred to as the smooth zone. However, this descriptive result lacks a mechanistic explanation for how the trigger decision is made. More recently, we proposed a decision model (Coutinho et al., 2018) that relies on a probabilistic estimation of predicted position error (PEpred) during visual tracking. To test the model predictions, we investigated how human participants combined predicted position error, retinal slip, and the uncertainty in those estimates to make trigger decisions. We found a significant effect of the pre-saccadic magnitude of PEpred on trigger time and occurrence of catch-up saccades. To test the role of uncertainty, we blurred the moving target which led to longer and more variable saccade trigger times and more smooth pursuit trials, consistent with model predictions. As predicted by our model, large PEpred (>10deg) produced early saccades regardless of the level of uncertainty while saccades preceded by small PEpred (<10deg) were significantly modulated by high uncertainty. Our model also predicted increased signal dependent noise as retinal slip increases, which resulted in longer saccade trigger times and more smooth trials. In conclusion, the data supports our hypothesized role of PEpred in deciding when to trigger a catch-up saccade during smooth pursuit while taking into account uncertainty in sensory estimates. RawRaw double-step ramp eye-tracking data of 15 subjects from EyeLink 1000 and Matlab.LabeledS1-S5Labeled data file for subjects 1-5LabeledS7-S11Labeled data for subjects 7-11LabeledS12-S16Labeled data for subjects 12-16Data Collection Log

The Permafrost Favorability Index (PFI) map for the Chilean Semi-Arid Andes (29°S-32°S) indicates where permafrost is likely to occur (resolution 30 m x 30 m). The predicted favorability of permafrost occurrence ranges between 0 and 1, where high PFI values indicate most favorable environmental conditions for permafrost existence and low values indicates that permafrost will be present in exceptional circumstances with favorable local conditions. Conditions highly favorable to permafrost presence (PFI > 0.75) are predicted for 1051 km² of mountain terrain, or 2.7 % of the total area of the watersheds studied. Favorable conditions are expected to occur in 2636 km², or 6.8% of the area. Especially the Elqui and Huasco watersheds in the northern half of the study area where a substantial surface portion (11.8 % each) was considered to be favorable for permafrost presence, while predicted favorable areas in the southern Limarí and Choapa watersheds are mostly limited to specific sub-watersheds. Supplement to: Azócar, Guillermo; Brenning, Alexander; Bodin, Xavier (2016): Permafrost Distribution Modeling in the Semi-Arid Chilean Andes. The Cryosphere, 11, 877-890 Raster files are saved in SAGA format (.sgrd) and vector file as Shapefile. All data are projected in WGS84 UTM 19 South.

Mitochondria are central to aerobic energy production and play a key role in neuronal signalling. During anoxia, however, the mitochondria of most vertebrates initiate deleterious cell death cascades. Nonetheless, a handful of vertebrate species, including some freshwater turtles, are remarkably tolerant of low oxygen environments and survive months of anoxia without apparent damage to brain tissue. This tolerance suggests that mitochondria in the brains of such species are adapted to withstand prolonged anoxia, but little is known about potential neuroprotective responses. In this study, we address such mechanisms by comparing mitochondrial function between brain tissues isolated from cold-acclimated red-eared slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) exposed to two weeks of either normoxia or anoxia. We found that brain mitochondria from anoxia-acclimated turtles exhibited a unique phenotype of remodelling relative to normoxic controls, including: (i) decreased citrate synthase and F1FO-ATPase activity but maintained protein content, (ii) markedly reduced aerobic capacity, and (iii) mild uncoupling of the mitochondrial proton gradient. These data suggest that turtle brain mitochondria respond to low oxygen stress with a unique suite of changes tailored towards neuroprotection. Oroboros data filesOroboros Instruments DatLab Data (DLD) files.

Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) are one of the classic systems for studying male alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) in teleost fishes. In this species, there are two distinct life histories: parental and cuckolder, encompassing three reproductive tactics, parental, satellite, and sneaker. The parental life history is fixed, whereas individuals who enter the cuckolder life history transition from sneaker to satellite tactic as they grow. For this study, we used RNAseq to characterize the brain transcriptome of the three male tactics and females during spawning to identify gene ontology (GO) categories and potential candidate genes associated with each tactic. We found that sneaker males had higher levels of gene expression differentiation compared to the other two male tactics. Sneaker males also had higher expression in ionotropic glutamate receptor genes, specifically AMPA receptors, compared to other males, which may be important for increased spatial working memory while attempting to cuckold parental males at their nests. Larger differences in gene expression also occurred among male tactics than between males and females. We found significant expression differences in several candidate genes that were previously identified in other species with ARTs and suggest a previously undescribed role for cAMP-responsive element modulator (crem) in influencing parental male behaviors during spawning. Fish sampling informationA text file detailing sampling information for fish used in this study. It includes the sex, tactic, total and standard length, sampling colony, sampling location, and RNA integrity numbers.Fish_sampling_info.txtTranscript CountsRaw transcripts counts produced from eXpress for all samplesMerged.results.xprsR scriptContains the R scripts used with edgeR for differential gene expression analysisRscript_DE_Analysis.txtAssembled transcriptomeAssembled bluegill transcriptome. Assembled de novo using Trinity.bluegill.final.fa