Consistent with these results, and independent of the olfactory-a

Consistent with these results, and independent of the olfactory-auditory integration, a significantly higher percentage of neurons from lactating mothers responded to at least one sound (Figure 6A, left; Table S1). This increase was significant when considering both responses to pure tones and to natural Androgen Receptor Antagonist sounds separately (Figure 6A, middle and right). Because this amplified response of the population to sounds is not evident in experienced virgins, it could not be explained by mere exposure to pup odors. Because this increase also did not appear in mothers

following weaning, we consider it to be a transient effect. This transient effect may well be associated with the transient endocrinal changes that occur during pregnancy and after parturition (Brunton and Russell, 2008 and Miranda

and Liu, 2009). Because different sounds bear different behavioral meanings, we analyzed how the different sounds (two different natural sounds and one reference nonnatural sound) were represented in A1 of all four experimental groups. BBN and WCs were overrepresented by ∼2-fold in lactating mothers as compared to all other groups (Figure 6B, left and middle). USVs were considerably overrepresented 3-MA manufacturer (by ∼10-fold) in lactating mothers relative to their representation in naive virgins (Figure 6B, right). Interestingly, USVs were also overrepresented (by ∼4-fold, relative to their representation in naive virgins) in experienced virgins and in mothers following weaning, albeit still significantly lower than in lactating mothers (Figure 6B, right). This analysis indicated that maternal-induced plasticity may facilitate responses to specific sounds rather than act as a general gain control to the whole circuit. Therefore, we next analyzed whether the olfactory-auditory Cell press integration also induced specific effects on the detection

and discrimination of the sounds we presented. To that end, we isolated the effects of pup odors on BBN-, WC-, and USV-evoked responses in lactating mothers (this analysis was limited to this group because of the relatively low sample size of neurons responding to USV stimuli in all other groups; Table S2). Pup odors did not significantly affect the average detectability of neurons to BBN and WC stimuli because some neurons increased and others decreased their detectability (Figure 6C). In contrast, pup odors had a more homogeneous effect on responses to USV stimuli. Specifically, pup odors induced consistent increase for USV detectability in most neurons (Figure 6C; Table S2). For example, 12/15 neurons from lactating mothers increased their responses to USVs (Figure 6D, neurons marked with arrows pointing upwards, and Figure 4A, top left).

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