Image-based deep learning reveals the responses of human motor neurons to stress and VCP-related ALS.

AIMS: Although morphological attributes of cells and their substructures are recognised readouts of physiological or pathophysiological states, these have been relatively understudied in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research. METHODS: In this study, we integrate multichannel fluorescence high-content microscopy data with deep learning imaging methods to reveal-directly from unsegmented images-novel neurite-associated morphological perturbations associated with (ALS-causing) VCP-mutant human motor neurons (MNs). RESULTS: Surprisingly, we reveal that previously unrecognised disease-relevant information is withheld in broadly used and often considered 'generic' biological markers of nuclei (DAPI) and neurons ( ß III-tubulin). Additionally, we identify changes within the information content of ALS-related RNA binding protein (RBP) immunofluorescence imaging that is captured in VCP-mutant MN cultures. Furthermore, by analysing MN cultures exposed to different extrinsic stressors, we show that heat stress recapitulates key aspects of ALS. CONCLUSIONS: Our study therefore reveals disease-relevant information contained in a range of both generic and more specific fluorescent markers and establishes the use of image-based deep learning methods for rapid, automated and unbiased identification of biological hypotheses.

Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication.

While animals navigating the real world face a barrage of sensory input, their brains evolved to perceptually compress multidimensional information by selectively extracting the features relevant for survival. Notably, communication signals supporting social interactions in several mammalian species consist of acoustically complex sequences of vocalisations. However, little is known about what information listeners extract from such time-varying sensory streams. Here, we utilise female mice's natural behavioural response to male courtship songs to identify the relevant acoustic dimensions used in their social decisions. We found that females were highly sensitive to disruptions of song temporal regularity and preferentially approached playbacks of intact over rhythmically irregular versions of male songs. In contrast, female behaviour was invariant to manipulations affecting the songs' sequential organisation or the spectro-temporal structure of individual syllables. The results reveal temporal regularity as a key acoustic cue extracted by mammalian listeners from complex vocal sequences during goal-directed social behaviour.