Anneser Lukas, Kappel Johannes Maximilian
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
iScience. 2024 Dec 22;28(1):111678. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111678. eCollection 2025 Jan 17.
The recognition of conspecifics, animals of the same species, and keeping track of changes in the social environment is essential to all animals. While molecules, circuits, and brain regions that control social behaviors across species are studied in-depth, the neural mechanisms that enable the recognition of social cues are largely obscure. Recent evidence suggests that social cues across sensory modalities converge in a thalamic area conserved across vertebrates. These thalamic neurons control social behavior both via direct synaptic projections to other brain areas relevant for social behavior and by exerting brain-wide neuropeptidergic modulatory influence. Conspecifics are recognized by auditory, visual, and somatosensory cues, as well as mechanosensory inputs. These inputs are mostly processed in the mammalian colliculi and homologous structures in other vertebrates and are subsequently integrated in the posterior thalamus. Increased neuronal activity in this area promotes pro-social behavior across vertebrates. We propose a framework for social cue recognition by conspecific frequency-tuning in the vertebrate thalamus, discuss the potential roles of these conserved social representations and point to open questions.
识别同种个体（即同一物种的动物）并追踪社会环境的变化对所有动物来说都至关重要。虽然人们深入研究了跨物种控制社会行为的分子、神经回路和脑区，但能够识别社会线索的神经机制在很大程度上仍不清楚。最近的证据表明，跨感觉模态的社会线索在整个脊椎动物中保守的一个丘脑区域汇聚。这些丘脑神经元通过直接突触投射到与社会行为相关的其他脑区以及通过施加全脑范围的神经肽调节影响来控制社会行为。同种个体通过听觉、视觉、体感线索以及机械感觉输入来识别。这些输入大多在哺乳动物的中脑顶盖和其他脊椎动物的同源结构中进行处理，随后在后丘脑整合。该区域神经元活动的增加促进了整个脊椎动物的亲社会行为。我们提出了一个通过脊椎动物丘脑的同种频率调谐来识别社会线索的框架，讨论了这些保守的社会表征的潜在作用，并指出了悬而未决的问题。
