PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Takahashi, Daniel Y
AU  - El Hady, Ahmed
AU  - Zhang, Yisi S
AU  - Liao, Diana A
AU  - Montaldo, Gabriel
AU  - Urban, Alan
AU  - Ghazanfar, Asif A
TI  - Social-vocal brain networks in a non-human primate
AID  - 10.1101/2021.12.01.470701
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.12.01.470701
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/01/2021.12.01.470701.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/01/2021.12.01.470701.full
AB  - During social interactions, individuals influence each other to coordinate their actions. Vocal communication is an exceptionally efficient way to exert such influence. Where and how social interactions are dynamically modulated in the brain is unknown. We used functional ultrasound imaging in marmoset monkeys – a highly vocal species - to investigate the dynamics of medial social brain areas in vocal perception, production, and audio-vocal interaction. We found that the activity of a distributed network of subcortical and cortical regions distinguishes calls associated with different social contexts. This same brain network showed different dynamics during externally and internally driven vocalizations. These findings suggest the existence of a social-vocal brain network in medial cortical and subcortical areas that is fundamental in social communication.One Sentence Summary A network of medial subcortical and cortical brain areas gate social communication in primates.Competing Interest StatementAlan Urban is the founder and a shareholder of AUTC company commercializing functional ultrasound imaging solutions for preclinical and clinical research.