Biology subjects

Kornbrek, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Kornbrek, C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Divergent Dopamine Dynamics within the Accumbens Core

Dopamine in the nucleus accumbens Core powerfully influences motivation and learning, yet the information encoded by Core dopamine remains unresolved. Competing theories typically assume a spatially uniform signal, and standard recording methods average dopamine over substantial tissue volumes. Using two-photon imaging through microprisms in behaving mice, we reveal a pronounced spatial organization of Core dopamine dynamics. Posterior Core showed phasic dopamine increases to both rewards and aversive stimuli, with transfer to a predictive cue after learning. Anterior Core showed phasic decreases to aversive stimuli, weaker increases to reward, and higher tonic dopamine that was further amplified by cocaine. Rather than uniform or highly fragmented signals, the Core contains a smoothly graded mixture between two distinct sets of dopamine dynamics, neither matching canonical reward prediction errors.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Rates but not acoustic features of ultrasonic vocalizations are related to non-vocal behaviors in mouse pups

Mouse pups produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to isolation from the nest (i.e., isolation USVs). Rates and acoustic features of isolation USVs change dramatically over the first two weeks of life, and there is also substantial variability in the rates and acoustic features of isolation USVs at a given postnatal age. The factors that contribute to within-age variability in isolation USVs remain largely unknown. Here, we explore the extent to which non-vocal behaviors of mouse pups relate to the within-age variability in rates and acoustic features of their USVs. We recorded non-vocal behaviors of isolated C57BL/6J mouse pups at four postnatal ages (postnatal days 5, 10, 15, and 20), measured rates of isolation USV production, and applied a combination of hand-picked acoustic feature measurements and an unsupervised machine learning-based vocal analysis method to examine USV acoustic features. When we considered different categories of non-vocal behavior, our analyses revealed that mice in all postnatal age groups produce higher rates of isolation USVs during active non-vocal behaviors than when lying still. Moreover, rates of isolation USVs are correlated with the intensity (i.e., magnitude) of non-vocal body and limb movements within a given trial. In contrast, USVs produced during different categories of non-vocal behaviors and during different intensities of non-vocal movement do not differ substantially in their acoustic features. Our findings suggest that levels of behavioral arousal contribute to within-age variability in rates, but not acoustic features, of mouse isolation USVs.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Sex- and context-dependent effects of acute isolation on vocal and non-vocal social behaviors in mice

Humans are extraordinarily social, and social isolation has profound effects on our behavior, ranging from increased social motivation following short periods of social isolation to increased anti-social behaviors following long-term social isolation. Mice are frequently used as a model to understand how social isolation impacts the brain and behavior. While the effects of chronic social isolation on mouse social behavior have been well studied, much less is known about how acute isolation impacts mouse social behavior and whether these effects vary according to the sex of the mouse and the behavioral context of the social encounter. To address these questions, we characterized the effects of acute (3-day) social isolation on the vocal and non-vocal social behaviors of male and female mice during same-sex and opposite-sex social interactions. Our experiments uncovered pronounced effects of acute isolation on social interactions between female mice, while revealing more subtle effects on the social behaviors of male mice during same-sex and opposite-sex interactions. Our findings advance the study of same-sex interactions between female mice as an attractive paradigm to investigate neural mechanisms through which acute isolation enhances social motivation and promotes social behavior.

animal behavior and cognition↗