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386 Abstracts / Neuroscience R

Kindergarten” effect after this period on the acquisition of social communi-ation skills.esearch fund: KAKENHI 21200017, JST895251, AS2211728E, 165002202.

oi:10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1692

4-p13 Critical role of neuropeptides B/W receptor 1 sig-aling in social behavior and fear memoryuby Kuroiwa 1,2 , Naoki Furutani 1, Junko Hara 1, Mari Hondo 1,akoto Ishii 2,3, Tomomi Abe 1, Michihiro Mieda 1, Natsuko

sujino 1, Toshiyuki Motoike 2,4, Yuchio Yanagawa 5,6, Tomoyukiuwaki 7, Miyuki Yamamoto 8, Masashi Yanagisawa 2,4, Takeshiakurai 1,2

Dept. Molecular Neuroscience and Integrative Physiology, Univ. ofanazawa, Kanazawa, Japan 2 Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology

ERATO) Yanagisawa Orphan Receptor Project, Japan Science and Technol-gy Agency, Tokyo, Japan 3 Dept. Neurology, Weill Medical College of Cornellniv., New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, United States 4 Howardughes Medical Institute and Dept. Molecular Genetics, Univ. of Texas South-estern Medical Center, Dallas, United States 5 Dept. Genetic and Behavioraleuroscience, Gunma Univ. Graduate Sch of Med, Maebashi, Japan 6 Coreesearch for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science andechnology Agency, Tokyo, Japan 7 Dept. Physiology, Kagoshima Univ. Grad-ate Sch of Medand Dental Sciences, Kagoshima, Japan 8 Comprehensiveuman Sciences, Univ. of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

europeptide B/W receptor 1 (NPBWR1) is a G-protein coupled receptor,hich was initially reported as an orphan receptor, and whose ligands were

dentified by this and other groups in 2002 and 2003. To examine the phys-ological roles of NPBWR1, we examined phenotype of Npbwr1−/− mice.

hen presented with an intruder mouse, Npbwr1−/− mice showed impulsiveontact with the strange mice, produced more intense approaches towardhem, and had longer contact and chasing time along with greater and sus-ained elevation of heart rate and blood pressure compared to wild type

ice.Npbwr1−/− mice also showed increased autonomic and neuroendocrineesponses to physical stress, suggesting that impairment of NPBWR1 leads totress vulnerability. We also observed that these mice show abnormality inhe contextual fear conditioning test. These data suggest that NPBWR1 playscritical role in limbic system function and stress responses. Histological

nd electrophysiological studies showed that NPBWR1 acts as an inhibitoryegulator on a subpopulation of GABAergic neurons in the lateral division ofhe CeA and terminates stress responses. These findings suggest importantoles of NPBWR1 in regulating amygdala function during physical and socialtress.

oi:10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1693

4-p14 Role of the inferior frontal gyrus in understandingand actions performed in social contextsiroshi Shibata 1 , Toshio Inui 2, Kenji Ogawa 3

Dept. of Psychol., Tohoku Univ., Sendai 2 Dept. of Intell. Sci. and Technol.,yoto Univ., Kyoto 3 Cogn. Mechanisms Lab., ATR Inst., Int., Kyoto

he mirror neuron system (MNS) is believed to play a fundamental rolen action understanding because this system is responsible for represent-ng observed actions in the observer’s brain. It is assumed that the inferiorrontal gyrus (IFG) is a key component of the MNS. Recent fMRI studiesave shown that MNS areas are involved in high-level action understand-

ng such as intention. In the current study, we investigated the role of theFG in understanding hand actions performed in social contexts. We usedideo movies, in which 2 persons interacted, as stimuli: 1 person (requester)sked the other person (responder) to pass 1 of 2 objects; the responderassed the object that was congruent or incongruent to the request. Partic-

pants were asked to observe the movies from a third-person perspectivend judge the appropriateness of the responder’s action. The experimen-al factors included appropriateness of the responding action (congruentr incongruent) and the number of observed person(s) (2 or 1). In the 2-erson condition, both the requester’s and the responder’s hand appearedn the screen. On the other hand, in the 1-person condition, only the respon-er’s hand appeared on the screen, and the requester existed offscreen.esults showed the interaction effect (i.e., incongruent condition–congruent

ondition in the 2-person condition > incongruent condition–congruent con-ition in the 1-person condition) in the brain regions, including the left

FG (BA45/46) (p < 0.001, uncorrected for multiple comparisons). Region-of-nterest analysis showed the same tendency; the percent signal changes

ithin the left and right IFG were significantly larger in the incongruent

ch 71S (2011) e108–e415

condition than in the congruent condition, but this difference was observedonly in the 2-person condition. These results suggest that the IFG plays animportant role in action understanding depending on social contexts.Research fund: This study was supported in part by a grant from the GenesisResearch Institute, a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (No. 20-2537), and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (No. 20220003).

doi:10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1694

P4-p15 Keeping an eye on the conductor – Neural corre-lates of naïve and musicians for action synchronization withconductorKentaro Ono 1,2 , Akinori Nakamura 3, Burkhard Maess 2, AngelaD. Friederici 2

1 Career-Path Promotion Unit for Young Life Scientist, Kyoto University,Kyoto, Japan 2 Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences,Leipzig, Germany 3 National Center for Gerontology and Geriatrics, Aichi,Japan

Musicians who play in an orchestra need to follow the gestures of conductorto achieve an optimal performance. However, up to now it remains unclearhow precisely musicians synchronize with conductor and which brain mech-anisms are needed for it. To investigate these issues, we conducted behavioraland fMRI experiments with naïve subjects without special musical educationand musicians who have been playing music with conductor regularly.In the behavioral experiment, we prepared two different stimuli, display-ing silent movies of either a gesturing conductor or a swinging metronome.All stimuli presented four bars having four beats each (16 beats in total).Half of the movies presented the beats in a constant tempo. In the otherhalf, however, the tempo was changed within the third bar like ritardandoor accelerando. Subjects were asked to follow each beat by finger tapping.We estimated the temporal asynchrony between the timing of tap and beat.Interestingly, there was no difference between musicians and nonmusiciansfor their temporal asynchronies with metronome. However, while tappingwith conductor, musicians showed more precise tapping than nonmusicians.We used similar tapping task with movies of conductor and metronomein the fMRI experiment. Results of fMRI showed a larger activity in themedial prefrontal cortex (BA10) in musicians than nonmusicians. Further-more, this activation in musicians was positively correlated with the lengthof hours/week to play music with conductor. On the other hand, tappingwith metronome did not show any effect of musical experience both intapping accuracy and in brain activation. Results from these experimentsdemonstrate that musicians are better able to take the beat from gestures ofconductor than nonmusicians do. Furthermore, it appears to depend on theability of the musicians to interpret the intention of conductor, but not beinga merely generalized ability to tap a rhythm.

doi:10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1695

P4-p16 The EBA dysfunction in the ASD; as a “comparator”of self and other’s action during reciprocal imitationYuko Okamoto 1,2 , Hirotaka Kosaka 3,4, Ryo Kitada 1,2, HirokiC. Tanabe 1,2, Toshio Munesue 5, Makoto Ishitobi 3, Masamichi J.Hayashi 1,2, Daisuke N. Saito 4,6, Hisakazu T. Yanaka 4,6, TakanoriKochiyama 7, Masao Omori 8, Yuji Wada 3, Hidehiko Okazawa 4,Norihiro Sadato 1,2,4

1 NIPS 2 SOKENDAI 3 Faculty of Medical Sciences, Univ. of Fukui 4 BIRC, Univ. ofFukui 5 Research Center for Mental Development, Kanazawa Univ 6 Researchand Education Program for Life Science, Univ. of Fukui 7 ATR, Brain Activ-ity Imaging Center 8 Faculty of Nursing and Social Welfare Sciences, FukuiPrefectural Univ

Reciprocal imitation, both imitating other’s action and recognizing being imi-tated, is important for development of social ability. The ASD have deficit inreciprocal imitation. Our previous study in normal adults suggested that theextrastriate body area (EBA) detects the congruency between self and other’saction during reciprocal imitation by comparing visual information and effer-ence copy/proprioception. In addition, the task-related activity within theleft EBA was negatively correlated with autism-spectrum quotient (AQ)scores. In present study, we conducted fMRI to examine if the ASD have dys-function in the EBA. 22 normal subjects and 19 subjects with ASD executed

and observed the finger gestures. We manipulated the order and the congru-ency of the executed and observed action, thus constituting the 2 × 2 factorialdesign. Significant congruency effect was found within the EBA in the controlgroup. On the other hand, the congruency effects in the left EBA was reduced