Basolateral amygdala responds robustly to social calls: spiking characteristics of single unit activity

Vocalizations emitted within a social context can trigger call-specific changes in the emotional and physiological/autonomic state of the receiver. The amygdala is implicated in mediating these changes, but its role in call perception remains relatively unexplored. We examined call and pitch selectivity of single neurons within the basolateral amygdala (BLA) by recording spiking activity in response to 5 pitch variants of each of 14 species-specific calls presented to awake, head-restrained mustached bats, Pteronotus parnellii. A response-wise analysis across neurons revealed seven types of temporal response patterns based on the timing and duration of spiking. Roughly half of the responses to different call types were significantly affected by changes in call pitch. A neuron-wise analysis revealed that ∼12% (8/69) of the neurons preferred the same pitch across all call types. Ninety-three percent (93/100) of neurons were excited by at least one call type and 76% exhibited either complete or transient suppression to one or more call types. The majority of neurons preferred fewer than half of the 14 different simple-syllabic calls. A call-wise analysis of spiking activity revealed that call types signaling either threat or fear most consistently evoked increases in the spike rate. In contrast, calls emitted during appeasement tended to evoke spike suppression. Our data suggest that BLA neurons participate in the processing of multiple call types and exhibit a rich variety of temporal response patterns that are neither neuron nor call specific.