Current Biology最新文献

{"title":"Representations of personally familiar voices are better resolved in the brain.","authors":"Elise Kanber, Clare Lally, Raha Razin, Victor Rosi, Lúcia Garrido, Nadine Lavan, Carolyn McGettigan","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.081","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.081","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The human voice is highly flexible, allowing for diverse expression during communication,¹ but presents perceptual challenges through large acoustic variability.²^,³^,⁴^,⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹ The ability to recognize an individual person's voice depends on the listener's ability to overcome this within-speaker variability to extract a single identity percept.²^,¹⁸ Previous work has found that this process is greatly assisted by familiarity,⁶^,⁹^,¹³ with evidence suggesting that more extensive and varied exposure to a voice is associated with the formation of a more robust mental representation of it.⁴^,⁸ Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with representational similarity analysis¹⁴ to characterize how personal familiarity with a voice is reflected in neural representations. We measured and compared brain responses with voices of differing familiarity-a personally familiar voice, a voice familiarized through lab training, and a new (untrained) voice-while listeners identified these voices from naturally varying, spontaneous speech clips. Personally familiar voices elicited brain response patterns in voice-, face-, and person-selective corticesthat showed higher within- and between-speaker dissimilarity, compared with lower-familiarity lab-trained and untrained voices. These findings indicated that representations for the sounds of personally familiar voices are better resolved from each other in the brain, and they align with other research reporting intelligibility advantages for speech produced by familiar talkers.¹⁵^,¹⁶^,¹⁷^,¹⁸ Overall, our findings suggest that extensive and varied exposure to personally familiar voices results in the development of finer-grained representations of those voices, which cannot be achieved via short-term lab training.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"2424-2432.e6"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143971865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Functional imaging and connectome analyses reveal organizing principles of taste circuits in Drosophila.","authors":"Jinfang Li, Rabiah Dhaliwal, Molly Stanley, Pierre Junca, Michael D Gordon","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.035","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.035","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Taste is crucial for many innate and learned behaviors. In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, taste impacts processes including feeding, oviposition, locomotion, mating, and memory formation. These diverse roles may necessitate the apparent distributed nature of taste responses across different circuits in the fly brain, leading to complexity that has hindered attempts to deduce unifying principles of taste processing and coding. Here, we combine information from the whole-brain connectome with functional calcium imaging to examine the neural representation of taste at early steps of processing. We find that the majority of taste-responsive cells in the subesophageal zone (SEZ), including local interneurons (SEZ-LNs) and projection neurons (SEZ-PNs) targeting the superior protocerebrum, are predicted to encode a single taste modality. This prediction is borne out by calcium imaging of cholinergic and GABAergic cells in the SEZ, as well as five representative SEZ-PNs. Although the connectome reveals some SEZ-PNs receiving direct inputs from sensory neurons, many receive primarily indirect taste inputs via cholinergic SEZ-LNs. These cholinergic SEZ-LNs appear to function as nodes to convey feedforward information to dedicated sets of morphologically similar SEZ-PNs. Together, these studies suggest a previously unappreciated logic and structure to fly taste circuits.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"2391-2405.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143978494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Region-specific nucleus accumbens dopamine signals encode distinct aspects of avoidance learning.","authors":"Gabriela C Lopez, Louis D Van Camp, Ryan F Kovaleski, Michael D Schaid, Venus N Sherathiya, Julia M Cox, Talia N Lerner","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Avoidance learning-learning to avoid bad outcomes-is an essential survival behavior. Dopamine signals are widely observed in response to aversive stimuli, indicating they could play a role in learning about how to avoid these stimuli.¹^,²^,³^,⁴^,⁵ However, it is unclear what computations dopamine signals perform to support avoidance learning. Furthermore, substantial heterogeneity in dopamine responses to aversive stimuli has been observed across nucleus accumbens (NAc) subregions.³^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸ To understand how heterogeneous dopamine responses to aversive stimuli contribute to avoidance learning, we recorded NAc core (Core) and NAc ventromedial shell (vmShell) dopamine during a task in which mice could avoid a footshock punishment by moving to the opposite side of a 2-chamber apparatus during a 5-s warning cue. Both signals evolved substantially-but differently-with learning. We found that Core and vmShell dopamine signals responded oppositely to shocks at the beginning of training and oppositely to warning cues as cue-shock associations developed in mid-training. Core dopamine responses strengthen with learning and are especially evident during expert performance. vmShell dopamine responses to cues and shocks were present during early learning but were not sustained during expert performance. Our data support a model in which Core dopamine encodes prediction errors that guide the consolidation of avoidance learning, while vmShell dopamine guides initial cue-shock associations by signaling aversive salience.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"2433-2443.e5"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12092177/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143987581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Animal behavior: Individual vocal recognition in bats.","authors":"John M Ratcliffe","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.070","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Several animals are able to recognize and discriminate between individuals based on various sensory cues. A new study shows that wild bats recognize individual group members by voice and tailor their responses accordingly.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 10","pages":"R386-R388"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144110157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plant reproduction: Seed size gated by central cell fertilization.","authors":"Zijun Lan, Sheng Zhong, Li-Jia Qu","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.078","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.078","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Double fertilization produces the embryo and endosperm, the primary components of a seed. A recent study shows how central cell fertilization specifically initiates the opening of a vascular gate to ensure efficient allocation of maternal resources for optimal seed development.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 10","pages":"R389-R391"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144110271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Translational differentiation of vertically displaced surfaces by grid cells.","authors":"Patrick A LaChance, Shawn S Winter, Jeffrey S Taube","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.036","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Navigation is commonly associated with two-dimensional (2D) representations of space. Recordings from place and grid cells in the rodent and bat brain have largely upheld this association. Recent studies have investigated how these 2D representations might extend into the three-dimensional (3D) world. One unexplored question is whether grid cells represent vertically separated horizontal surfaces as a single 3D space or distinct planar environments. To address this issue, we recorded grid cells as rats foraged in both an open-field environment and one with a transparent floor suspended directly above the open-field environment. Rats either actively locomoted up a ramp to the elevated environment, or they were passively moved between the two environments, to test how differences in path integration may affect grid cell firing. We found that grid cell firing patterns in the elevated environment were translated (but not rotated) relative to those in the floor environment and were consistent across active and passive sessions. The translation of the grid pattern on the elevated surface was consistent among co-recorded grid cells but differed between animals and between different groups of grid cells recorded from the same animal. Non-grid spatially modulated cells also rearranged their location preferences between the two surfaces. Overall, we did not observe any evidence that the two surfaces were represented with a single 3D representation but instead were treated as two distinct surfaces connected by a common orientation signal. These findings suggest that grid cell representations on visually distinct, vertically displaced horizontal surfaces are planar rather than volumetric.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"2379-2390.e5"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143972658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation.","authors":"Vesta Eleuteri, Jelle van der Werff, Wytse Wilhelm, Adrian Soldati, Catherine Crockford, Nisarg Desai, Pawel Fedurek, Maegan Fitzgerald, Kirsty E Graham, Kathelijne Koops, Jill Pruetz, Liran Samuni, Katie Slocombe, Angela Stoeger, Michael L Wilson, Roman M Wittig, Klaus Zuberbühler, Henry D Camara, Gnan Mamy, Andrea Ravignani, Catherine Hobaiter","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.019","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.019","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rhythmic percussion is present across human cultures and has been proposed as one of the earliest evolved forms of musical expression.¹ Key features of human rhythmic percussion include individual and regional variation, as well as structural features widespread across musical cultures, such as the use of non-random timing and isochrony (i.e., evenly spaced note onsets).²^,³^,⁴^,⁵ Comparative studies of drumming in our ape relatives contribute to understanding the evolutionary origins of human rhythmic percussion. In this context, large, diverse datasets allow testing for species-level universals and regional variation. Chimpanzees and bonobos, like humans, drum on instrumental substrates.²^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹ Wild chimpanzees drum on resonant tree buttresses, showing individual variation during traveling and resting contexts, and often integrate drumming into their long-distance pant-hoot vocalizations.⁶^,⁷^,⁸ But whether wild chimpanzee drumming shows structural musical features and regional variation in rhythm or in its integration within pant-hoots remains unknown. We show that wild chimpanzees drum with non-random timing and isochrony, providing evidence that rhythmic drumming on instrumental substrates may have been present in our last common ancestor.² Furthermore, we found subspecies-level regional rhythmic variation, showing that western chimpanzees drum isochronously, while eastern chimpanzees drum by alternating shorter and longer inter-hit intervals. Western chimpanzees also produce more drumming hits, drum at a faster tempo, and integrate drumming earlier in the pant-hoot vocalization, typically during the rhythmic build-up phase. Chimpanzee buttress drumming shows both species-level structural features of human musicality and stable subspecies regional differences across diverse ecologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"2448-2456.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143977177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Avian photoreceptor homologies and the origin of double cones.","authors":"Yu Liu, Erica C Hurley, Yohey Ogawa, Maria Gause, Matthew B Toomey, Connie A Myers, Joseph C Corbo","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Birds possess the most complex photoreceptor system among vertebrates, with one rod and six cone types, including four single cones (violet, blue, green, and red) and two constituent cells of the double cone (DC-P and DC-A). The evolutionary relationships of avian photoreceptors to those of other vertebrate taxa have not been systematically explored. Here, we perform single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on retinas of newly hatched chickens to trace cell-type homologies across species. Analysis of differentially expressed transcription factors (TFs) suggests that avian rods and single cone types correspond to cognate cell types in fish and placental mammals, whereas double cones have a distinct origin. We propose that DC-P arose from an ancestral red cone, as revealed by expression of the red cone cell fate determinants thyroid hormone receptor β (THRB) and SAMD7, whereas DC-A may have arisen from an ancestral blue cone, as suggested by expression of the blue cone TFs FOXQ2 and SKOR1. These expression signatures are shared by DC-P and DC-A of the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), suggesting conservation throughout Sauropsida. Consistent with our hypothesis, CRISPR-mediated knockout of THRB causes loss of red cones and DC-P, but not DC-A, and the appearance of supernumerary rods and green cones, suggestive of direct transfating. Furthermore, cis-regulatory analysis suggests that separate enhancers control red cone opsin expression in DC-P and DC-A, consistent with distinct evolutionary origins. Taken together, our studies trace the evolutionary relationships of avian photoreceptors and suggest separate origins of DC-P and DC-A from ancestral red and blue cones, respectively.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"2215-2227.e6"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143981701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gastrulation: Lessons from the quail embryo.","authors":"Guilherme Ventura, Diana Pinheiro","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Early development relies on reciprocal interactions between embryonic and extraembryonic tissues, but how this interplay controls embryo shape remains unclear. New findings in quail show that divergent morphogenetic responses in embryonic and extraembryonic territories involve non-uniform force propagation.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 10","pages":"R384-R386"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144110225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rise and spread of a social tradition of interspecies abduction.","authors":"Zoë Goldsborough, Margaret C Crofoot, Odd T Jacobson, Lisa Corewyn, Evelyn Del Rosario-Vargas, Julián León, Brendan J Barrett","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.056","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cultural traditions lacking clear function are exceptionally common in humans, partially explained by our hyper-reliance on social learning¹. In non-human animals, it is unclear whether the same ecological and social conditions drive the emergence of both seemingly adaptive and non-adaptive traditions. Here, we describe the origins and spread of a tradition of interspecies abduction in the wild. We documented carrying of eleven different infant howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata coibensis) by five immature male white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus imitator) over 15 months on Jicarón island, Coiba National Park, Panama. All cases occurred in one capuchin group, which has been studied since 2017 for their localized tradition of habitual stone tool-use, unique to Cebus². We captured the origin of this 'howler abduction' tradition, starting with one subadult male innovator, and its spread to four subadult and juvenile males (Figure 1 and Supplemental information; see also interactive timeline: https://www.ab.mpg.de/671374/Capuchin-tool-use/interspecies-abduction-tradition). We argue that the same conditions which favored adaptive cultural innovations like tool-use on Jicarón also underlie this non-adaptive tradition.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 10","pages":"R375-R376"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144110278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}