Encoding of social exploration by neural ensembles in the insular cortex

• Miura, Isamu

• Sato, Masaaki

• Overton, Eric T. N.

• Kunori, Nobuo

• Nakai, Junichi

• Kawamata, Takakazu

• Nakai, Nobuhiro

• Takumi, Toru

• Eunjoon Kim

  editor

Abstract

The insular cortex (IC) participates in diverse complex brain functions, including social function, yet their cellular bases remain to be fully understood. Using microendoscopic calcium imaging of the agranular insular cortex (AI) in mice interacting with freely moving and restrained social targets, we identified 2 subsets of AI neurons-a larger fraction of "Social-ON" cells and a smaller fraction of "Social-OFF" cells-that change their activity in opposite directions during social exploration. Social-ON cells included those that represented social investigation independent of location and consisted of multiple subsets, each of which was preferentially active during exploration under a particular behavioral state or with a particular target of physical contact. These results uncover a previously unknown function of AI neurons that may act to monitor the ongoing status of social exploration while an animal interacts with unfamiliar conspecifics.

Journal

• PLoS Biology

  PLoS Biology 18 (9), e3000584-e3000584, 2020-09-21

  Public Library of Science

Keywords

• General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
• General Immunology and Microbiology
• General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
• General Neuroscience

Details

• CRID: 1050294045368867584
• NII Article ID: 120006894010
• NII Book ID: AA11886145
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000584
• ISSN: 15457885
• ISSN: 15449173
• HANDLE: 20.500.14094/90007538
• Web Site: https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000584
• Text Lang: en
• Article Type: journal article
• Data Source:
  • IRDB
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN