Project P5 investigates the neural circuits that support acoustic communication in naked mole-rats. This emerging rodent model exhibits coordinated call-and-response behavior that helps maintain its highly social lifestyle.

The project aims to elucidate the role of three brain regions—the auditory cortex (AC), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the periaqueductal gray (PAG)—in antiphonal calling behavior. Two principal investigators (Barker and Hechavarria) each supervise a PhD student working on complementary work packages (WPs). Both WPs investigate the same brain regions but with different emphases. WP1 (Barker) focuses on neural activity related to voice production during turn-taking, while WP2 (Hechavarria) investigates neural selectivity for colony-specific vocalizations relevant to precise turn-taking behavior. These closely related WPs aim to demonstrate how sensory and motor processes interact to enable precise vocal control. Project P5 employs a neuroethological approach to study vocal communication. It combines an animal model (naked mole-rats) that has evolved to specialize in vocal communication with cutting-edge methods such as neuropixel recordings, pharmacological deactivation, and the acquisition of video and audio data for behavioral quantification. The results will provide new insights into the processing of socially relevant vocalizations by the AC-ACC-PAG circuit, as well as the temporal coordination of calls during antiphonal exchanges.

P5 will benefit from the methodological and theoretical exchange with other researchers in the research group and will contribute significantly to research by providing large, currently unavailable datasets on the behavioral and neural basis of antiphonal vocal behavior in naked mole-rats.