Vocalizations are used by animals to attract mates, defend territory, and communicate information about an animal’s identity and internal state. Moreover, vocalizations that are produced in different behavioral contexts have distinct acoustic features that endow them with communicative significance. The Tschida Lab studies the neural circuit mechanisms that underlie these processes in mice, which produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social interactions, as well as broadband vocalizations (squeaks) in aversive contexts. We aim to understand how brains encode information about behavioral context, which allows an animal to decide which type of vocalization to produce, and whether or not to vocalize in the first place. We also study how vocalization circuits change over development to enable the transition from infant isolation USVs to adult social USVs. Finally, we study how brainstem neurons regulate vocal production, with an emphasis on understanding neuronal populations important for the production of USVs vs. squeaks. To address these questions, we use cutting-edge viral genetic tools to map, monitor, and manipulate the activity of neurons important to vocalization, combined with careful measurements of vocalizations and other social behaviors.
Our research is rooted in careful observations of the vocal and non-vocal social behaviors of mice.
We use viral tools to create anatomical and functional maps of the brain-wide circuits that control vocalization.
We monitor and manipulate neural activity, to understand how neurons shape vocalization and other social behaviors.
Painting depicting the activity of midbrain neurons in a vocalizing mouse. Artwork courtesy of Alina Xiao.
Midbrain neurons essential to USV production send projections (green) to hindbrain neurons (red) that are active during vocalization.
Calcium signals imaged from populations of neurons in mice that are vocalizing during social interactions.