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García-Lázaro HG, Teng S. Sensory and Perceptual Decisional Processes Underlying the Perception of Reverberant Auditory Environments. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0122-24.2024. [PMID: 39122554 PMCID: PMC11335967 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0122-24.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Revised: 06/29/2024] [Accepted: 07/25/2024] [Indexed: 08/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Reverberation, a ubiquitous feature of real-world acoustic environments, exhibits statistical regularities that human listeners leverage to self-orient, facilitate auditory perception, and understand their environment. Despite the extensive research on sound source representation in the auditory system, it remains unclear how the brain represents real-world reverberant environments. Here, we characterized the neural response to reverberation of varying realism by applying multivariate pattern analysis to electroencephalographic (EEG) brain signals. Human listeners (12 males and 8 females) heard speech samples convolved with real-world and synthetic reverberant impulse responses and judged whether the speech samples were in a "real" or "fake" environment, focusing on the reverberant background rather than the properties of speech itself. Participants distinguished real from synthetic reverberation with ∼75% accuracy; EEG decoding reveals a multistage decoding time course, with dissociable components early in the stimulus presentation and later in the perioffset stage. The early component predominantly occurred in temporal electrode clusters, while the later component was prominent in centroparietal clusters. These findings suggest distinct neural stages in perceiving natural acoustic environments, likely reflecting sensory encoding and higher-level perceptual decision-making processes. Overall, our findings provide evidence that reverberation, rather than being largely suppressed as a noise-like signal, carries relevant environmental information and gains representation along the auditory system. This understanding also offers various applications; it provides insights for including reverberation as a cue to aid navigation for blind and visually impaired people. It also helps to enhance realism perception in immersive virtual reality settings, gaming, music, and film production.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Santani Teng
- Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, California 94115
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2
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Vattino LG, MacGregor CP, Liu CJ, Sweeney CG, Takesian AE. Primary auditory thalamus relays directly to cortical layer 1 interneurons. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.07.16.603741. [PMID: 39071266 PMCID: PMC11275971 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.16.603741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/30/2024]
Abstract
Inhibitory interneurons within cortical layer 1 (L1-INs) integrate inputs from diverse brain regions to modulate sensory processing and plasticity, but the sensory inputs that recruit these interneurons have not been identified. Here we used monosynaptic retrograde tracing and whole-cell electrophysiology to characterize the thalamic inputs onto two major subpopulations of L1-INs in the mouse auditory cortex. We find that the vast majority of auditory thalamic inputs to these L1-INs unexpectedly arise from the ventral subdivision of the medial geniculate body (MGBv), the tonotopically-organized primary auditory thalamus. Moreover, these interneurons receive robust functional monosynaptic MGBv inputs that are comparable to those recorded in the L4 excitatory pyramidal neurons. Our findings identify a direct pathway from the primary auditory thalamus to the L1-INs, suggesting that these interneurons are uniquely positioned to integrate thalamic inputs conveying precise sensory information with top-down inputs carrying information about brain states and learned associations.
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Tobin M, Sheth J, Wood KC, Michel EK, Geffen MN. "Distinct inhibitory neurons differently shape neuronal codes for sound intensity in the auditory cortex". BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.02.01.526470. [PMID: 36778269 PMCID: PMC9915672 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.01.526470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Cortical circuits contain multiple types of inhibitory neurons which shape how information is processed within neuronal networks. Here, we asked whether somatostatin-expressing (SST) and vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing (VIP) inhibitory neurons have distinct effects on population neuronal responses to noise bursts of varying intensities. We optogenetically stimulated SST or VIP neurons while simultaneously measuring the calcium responses of populations of hundreds of neurons in the auditory cortex of male and female awake, head-fixed mice to sounds. Upon SST neuronal activation, noise bursts representations became more discrete for different intensity levels, relying on cell identity rather than strength. By contrast, upon VIP neuronal activation, noise bursts of different intensity level activated overlapping neuronal populations, albeit at different response strengths. At the single-cell level, SST and VIP neuronal activation differentially activated the response-level curves of monotonic and nonmonotonic neurons. SST neuronal activation effects were consistent with a shift of the neuronal population responses toward a more localist code with different cells responding to sounds of different intensity. By contrast, VIP neuronal activation shifted responses towards a more distributed code, in which sounds of different intensity level are encoded in the relative response of similar populations of cells. These results delineate how distinct inhibitory neurons in the auditory cortex dynamically control cortical population codes. Different inhibitory neuronal populations may be recruited under different behavioral demands, depending on whether categorical or invariant representations are advantageous for the task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melanie Tobin
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
| | - Janaki Sheth
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
| | - Katherine C. Wood
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
| | - Erin K. Michel
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
| | - Maria N. Geffen
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
- Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
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Suri H, Salgado-Puga K, Wang Y, Allen N, Lane K, Granroth K, Olivei A, Nass N, Rothschild G. A Cortico-Striatal Circuit for Sound-Triggered Prediction of Reward Timing. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.21.568134. [PMID: 38045246 PMCID: PMC10690153 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.21.568134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2023]
Abstract
A crucial aspect of auditory perception is the ability to use sound cues to predict future events and to time actions accordingly. For example, distinct smartphone notification sounds reflect a call that needs to be answered within a few seconds, or a text that can be read later; the sound of an approaching vehicle signals when it is safe to cross the street. Other animals similarly use sounds to plan, time and execute behaviors such as hunting, evading predation and tending to offspring. However, the neural mechanisms that underlie sound-guided prediction of upcoming salient event timing are not well understood. To address this gap, we employed an appetitive sound-triggered reward time prediction behavior in head-fixed mice. We find that mice trained on this task reliably estimate the time from a sound cue to upcoming reward on the scale of a few seconds, as demonstrated by learning-dependent well-timed increases in reward-predictive licking. Moreover, mice showed a dramatic impairment in their ability to use sound to predict delayed reward when the auditory cortex was inactivated, demonstrating its causal involvement. To identify the neurophysiological signatures of auditory cortical reward-timing prediction, we recorded local field potentials during learning and performance of this behavior and found that the magnitude of auditory cortical responses to the sound prospectively encoded the duration of the anticipated sound-reward time interval. Next, we explored how and where these sound-triggered time interval prediction signals propagate from the auditory cortex to time and initiate consequent action. We targeted the monosynaptic projections from the auditory cortex to the posterior striatum and found that chemogenetic inactivation of these projections impairs animal's ability to predict sound-triggered delayed reward. Simultaneous neural recordings in the auditory cortex and posterior striatum during task performance revealed coordination of neural activity across these regions during the sound cue predicting the time interval to reward. Collectively, our findings identify an auditory cortical-striatal circuit supporting sound-triggered timing-prediction behaviors.
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5
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Diamond ME, Toso A. Tactile cognition in rodents. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 149:105161. [PMID: 37028580 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Revised: 03/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023]
Abstract
Since the discovery 50 years ago of the precisely ordered representation of the whiskers in somatosensory cortex, the rodent tactile sensory system has been a fertile ground for the study of sensory processing. With the growing sophistication of touch-based behavioral paradigms, together with advances in neurophysiological methodology, a new approach is emerging. By posing increasingly complex perceptual and memory problems, in many cases analogous to human psychophysical tasks, investigators now explore the operations underlying rodent problem solving. We define the neural basis of tactile cognition as the transformation from a stage in which neuronal activity encodes elemental features, local in space and in time, to a stage in which neuronal activity is an explicit representation of the behavioral operations underlying the current task. Selecting a set of whisker-based behavioral tasks, we show that rodents achieve high level performance through the workings of neuronal circuits that are accessible, decodable, and manipulatable. As a means towards exploring tactile cognition, this review presents leading psychophysical paradigms and, where known, their neural correlates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathew E Diamond
- Cognitive Neuroscience, International School for Advanced Studies, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
| | - Alessandro Toso
- Cognitive Neuroscience, International School for Advanced Studies, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
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6
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Shilling-Scrivo K, Mittelstadt J, Kanold PO. Decreased Modulation of Population Correlations in Auditory Cortex Is Associated with Decreased Auditory Detection Performance in Old Mice. J Neurosci 2022; 42:9278-9292. [PMID: 36302637 PMCID: PMC9761686 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0955-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Revised: 09/17/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) affects one-third of the world's population. One hallmark of presbycusis is difficulty hearing in noisy environments. Presbycusis can be separated into two components: the aging ear and the aging brain. To date, the role of the aging brain in presbycusis is not well understood. Activity in the primary auditory cortex (A1) during a behavioral task is because of a combination of responses representing the acoustic stimuli, attentional gain, and behavioral choice. Disruptions in any of these aspects can lead to decreased auditory processing. To investigate how these distinct components are disrupted in aging, we performed in vivo 2-photon Ca2+ imaging in both male and female mice (Thy1-GCaMP6s × CBA/CaJ mice) that retain peripheral hearing into old age. We imaged A1 neurons of young adult (2-6 months) and old mice (16-24 months) during a tone detection task in broadband noise. While young mice performed well, old mice performed worse at low signal-to-noise ratios. Calcium imaging showed that old animals have increased prestimulus activity, reduced attentional gain, and increased noise correlations. Increased correlations in old animals exist regardless of cell tuning and behavioral outcome, and these correlated networks exist over a much larger portion of cortical space. Neural decoding techniques suggest that this prestimulus activity is predictive of old animals making early responses. Together, our results suggest a model in which old animals have higher and more correlated prestimulus activity and cannot fully suppress this activity, leading to the decreased representation of targets among distracting stimuli.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Aging inhibits the ability to hear clearly in noisy environments. We show that the aging auditory cortex is unable to fully suppress its responses to background noise. During an auditory behavior, fewer neurons were suppressed in the old relative to young animals, which leads to higher prestimulus activity and more false alarms. We show that this excess activity additionally leads to increased correlations between neurons, reducing the amount of relevant stimulus information in the auditory cortex. Future work identifying the lost circuits that are responsible for proper background suppression could provide new targets for therapeutic strategies to preserve auditory processing ability into old age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelson Shilling-Scrivo
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21230
| | - Jonah Mittelstadt
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 20215
| | - Patrick O Kanold
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 20215
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Chen APF, Malgady JM, Chen L, Shi KW, Cheng E, Plotkin JL, Ge S, Xiong Q. Nigrostriatal dopamine pathway regulates auditory discrimination behavior. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5942. [PMID: 36209150 PMCID: PMC9547888 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33747-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The auditory striatum, the tail portion of dorsal striatum in basal ganglia, is implicated in perceptual decision-making, transforming auditory stimuli to action outcomes. Despite its known connections to diverse neurological conditions, the dopaminergic modulation of sensory striatal neuronal activity and its behavioral influences remain unknown. We demonstrated that the optogenetic inhibition of dopaminergic projections from the substantia nigra pars compacta to the auditory striatum specifically impairs mouse choice performance but not movement in an auditory frequency discrimination task. In vivo dopamine and calcium imaging in freely behaving mice revealed that this dopaminergic projection modulates striatal tone representations, and tone-evoked striatal dopamine release inversely correlated with the evidence strength of tones. Optogenetic inhibition of D1-receptor expressing neurons and pharmacological inhibition of D1 receptors in the auditory striatum dampened choice performance accuracy. Our study uncovers a phasic mechanism within the nigrostriatal system that regulates auditory decisions by modulating ongoing auditory perception. The auditory striatum, the tail portion of dorsal striatum, is implicated in decision-making. This study uncovers a phasic mechanism within the nigrostriatal system that regulates auditory decisions by modulating ongoing auditory perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allen P F Chen
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.,Medical Scientist Training Program, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Jeffrey M Malgady
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Lu Chen
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Kaiyo W Shi
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Eileen Cheng
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.,Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Joshua L Plotkin
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.,Center for Nervous System Disorders, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Shaoyu Ge
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - Qiaojie Xiong
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
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8
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Filipchuk A, Schwenkgrub J, Destexhe A, Bathellier B. Awake perception is associated with dedicated neuronal assemblies in the cerebral cortex. Nat Neurosci 2022; 25:1327-1338. [PMID: 36171431 PMCID: PMC9534770 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-022-01168-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
Neural activity in the sensory cortex combines stimulus responses and ongoing activity, but it remains unclear whether these reflect the same underlying dynamics or separate processes. In the present study, we show in mice that, during wakefulness, the neuronal assemblies evoked by sounds in the auditory cortex and thalamus are specific to the stimulus and distinct from the assemblies observed in ongoing activity. By contrast, under three different anesthetics, evoked assemblies are indistinguishable from ongoing assemblies in the cortex. However, they remain distinct in the thalamus. A strong remapping of sensory responses accompanies this dynamic state change produced by anesthesia. Together, these results show that the awake cortex engages dedicated neuronal assemblies in response to sensory inputs, which we suggest is a network correlate of sensory perception. Filipchuk et al. show that when awake mice perceive sounds, the auditory cortex produces sound-specific neuronal assemblies distinct from its ongoing activity, whereas under anesthesia sound-evoked assemblies are indistinguishable from ongoing activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anton Filipchuk
- Paris-Saclay University, CNRS, Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, Saclay, France.,Healthy Mind, Institut du Cerveau - ICM, Paris, France
| | - Joanna Schwenkgrub
- Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, INSERM, Institut de l'Audition, Paris, France
| | - Alain Destexhe
- Paris-Saclay University, CNRS, Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, Saclay, France.
| | - Brice Bathellier
- Paris-Saclay University, CNRS, Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, Saclay, France. .,Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, INSERM, Institut de l'Audition, Paris, France.
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9
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Suri H, Rothschild G. Enhanced stability of complex sound representations relative to simple sounds in the auditory cortex. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0031-22.2022. [PMID: 35868858 PMCID: PMC9347310 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0031-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2022] [Revised: 06/29/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Typical everyday sounds, such as those of speech or running water, are spectrotemporally complex. The ability to recognize complex sounds (CxS) and their associated meaning is presumed to rely on their stable neural representations across time. The auditory cortex is critical for processing of CxS, yet little is known of the degree of stability of auditory cortical representations of CxS across days. Previous studies have shown that the auditory cortex represents CxS identity with a substantial degree of invariance to basic sound attributes such as frequency. We therefore hypothesized that auditory cortical representations of CxS are more stable across days than those of sounds that lack spectrotemporal structure such as pure tones (PTs). To test this hypothesis, we recorded responses of identified L2/3 auditory cortical excitatory neurons to both PTs and CxS across days using two-photon calcium imaging in awake mice. Auditory cortical neurons showed significant daily changes of responses to both types of sounds, yet responses to CxS exhibited significantly lower rates of daily change than those of PTs. Furthermore, daily changes in response profiles to PTs tended to be more stimulus-specific, reflecting changes in sound selectivity, as compared to changes of CxS responses. Lastly, the enhanced stability of responses to CxS was evident across longer time intervals as well. Together, these results suggest that spectrotemporally CxS are more stably represented in the auditory cortex across time than PTs. These findings support a role of the auditory cortex in representing CxS identity across time.Significance statementThe ability to recognize everyday complex sounds such as those of speech or running water is presumed to rely on their stable neural representations. Yet, little is known of the degree of stability of single-neuron sound responses across days. As the auditory cortex is critical for complex sound perception, we hypothesized that the auditory cortical representations of complex sounds are relatively stable across days. To test this, we recorded sound responses of identified auditory cortical neurons across days in awake mice. We found that auditory cortical responses to complex sounds are significantly more stable across days as compared to those of simple pure tones. These findings support a role of the auditory cortex in representing complex sound identity across time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harini Suri
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA
| | - Gideon Rothschild
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA
- Kresge Hearing Research Institute and Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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10
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Non-sensory Influences on Auditory Learning and Plasticity. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2022; 23:151-166. [PMID: 35235100 PMCID: PMC8964851 DOI: 10.1007/s10162-022-00837-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/30/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Distinguishing between regular and irregular heartbeats, conversing with speakers of different accents, and tuning a guitar-all rely on some form of auditory learning. What drives these experience-dependent changes? A growing body of evidence suggests an important role for non-sensory influences, including reward, task engagement, and social or linguistic context. This review is a collection of contributions that highlight how these non-sensory factors shape auditory plasticity and learning at the molecular, physiological, and behavioral level. We begin by presenting evidence that reward signals from the dopaminergic midbrain act on cortico-subcortical networks to shape sound-evoked responses of auditory cortical neurons, facilitate auditory category learning, and modulate the long-term storage of new words and their meanings. We then discuss the role of task engagement in auditory perceptual learning and suggest that plasticity in top-down cortical networks mediates learning-related improvements in auditory cortical and perceptual sensitivity. Finally, we present data that illustrates how social experience impacts sound-evoked activity in the auditory midbrain and forebrain and how the linguistic environment rapidly shapes speech perception. These findings, which are derived from both human and animal models, suggest that non-sensory influences are important regulators of auditory learning and plasticity and are often implemented by shared neural substrates. Application of these principles could improve clinical training strategies and inform the development of treatments that enhance auditory learning in individuals with communication disorders.
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11
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Task-induced modulations of neuronal activity along the auditory pathway. Cell Rep 2021; 37:110115. [PMID: 34910908 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Revised: 01/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory processing varies depending on behavioral context. Here, we ask how task engagement modulates neurons in the auditory system. We train mice in a simple tone-detection task and compare their neuronal activity during passive hearing and active listening. Electrophysiological extracellular recordings in the inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body, primary auditory cortex, and anterior auditory field reveal widespread modulations across all regions and cortical layers and in both putative regular- and fast-spiking cortical neurons. Clustering analysis unveils ten distinct modulation patterns that can either enhance or suppress neuronal activity. Task engagement changes the tone-onset response in most neurons. Such modulations first emerge in subcortical areas, ruling out cortical feedback as the only mechanism underlying subcortical modulations. Half the neurons additionally display late modulations associated with licking, arousal, or reward. Our results reveal the presence of functionally distinct subclasses of neurons, differentially sensitive to specific task-related variables but anatomically distributed along the auditory pathway.
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12
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Inhibition in the auditory cortex. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 132:61-75. [PMID: 34822879 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.11.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Revised: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
The auditory system provides us with extremely rich and precise information about the outside world. Once a sound reaches our ears, the acoustic information it carries travels from the cochlea all the way to the auditory cortex, where its complexity and nuances are integrated. In the auditory cortex, functional circuits are formed by subpopulations of intermingled excitatory and inhibitory cells. In this review, we discuss recent evidence of the specific contributions of inhibitory neurons in sound processing and integration. We first examine intrinsic properties of three main classes of inhibitory interneurons in the auditory cortex. Then, we describe how inhibition shapes the responsiveness of the auditory cortex to sound. Finally, we discuss how inhibitory interneurons contribute to the sensation and perception of sounds. Altogether, this review points out the crucial role of cortical inhibitory interneurons in integrating information about the context, history, or meaning of a sound. It also highlights open questions to be addressed for increasing our understanding of the staggering complexity leading to the subtlest auditory perception.
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13
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Downer JD, Verhein JR, Rapone BC, O'Connor KN, Sutter ML. An Emergent Population Code in Primary Auditory Cortex Supports Selective Attention to Spectral and Temporal Sound Features. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7561-7577. [PMID: 34210783 PMCID: PMC8425978 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0693-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Textbook descriptions of primary sensory cortex (PSC) revolve around single neurons' representation of low-dimensional sensory features, such as visual object orientation in primary visual cortex (V1), location of somatic touch in primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and sound frequency in primary auditory cortex (A1). Typically, studies of PSC measure neurons' responses along few (one or two) stimulus and/or behavioral dimensions. However, real-world stimuli usually vary along many feature dimensions and behavioral demands change constantly. In order to illuminate how A1 supports flexible perception in rich acoustic environments, we recorded from A1 neurons while rhesus macaques (one male, one female) performed a feature-selective attention task. We presented sounds that varied along spectral and temporal feature dimensions (carrier bandwidth and temporal envelope, respectively). Within a block, subjects attended to one feature of the sound in a selective change detection task. We found that single neurons tend to be high-dimensional, in that they exhibit substantial mixed selectivity for both sound features, as well as task context. We found no overall enhancement of single-neuron coding of the attended feature, as attention could either diminish or enhance this coding. However, a population-level analysis reveals that ensembles of neurons exhibit enhanced encoding of attended sound features, and this population code tracks subjects' performance. Importantly, surrogate neural populations with intact single-neuron tuning but shuffled higher-order correlations among neurons fail to yield attention- related effects observed in the intact data. These results suggest that an emergent population code not measurable at the single-neuron level might constitute the functional unit of sensory representation in PSC.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to adapt to a dynamic sensory environment promotes a range of important natural behaviors. We recorded from single neurons in monkey primary auditory cortex (A1), while subjects attended to either the spectral or temporal features of complex sounds. Surprisingly, we found no average increase in responsiveness to, or encoding of, the attended feature across single neurons. However, when we pooled the activity of the sampled neurons via targeted dimensionality reduction (TDR), we found enhanced population-level representation of the attended feature and suppression of the distractor feature. This dissociation of the effects of attention at the level of single neurons versus the population highlights the synergistic nature of cortical sound encoding and enriches our understanding of sensory cortical function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua D Downer
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
- Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143
| | - Jessica R Verhein
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
- School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
| | - Brittany C Rapone
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
- School of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX4 0BP, United Kingdom
| | - Kevin N O'Connor
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
| | - Mitchell L Sutter
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618
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14
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Stoilova VV, Knauer B, Berg S, Rieber E, Jäkel F, Stüttgen MC. Auditory cortex reflects goal-directed movement but is not necessary for behavioral adaptation in sound-cued reward tracking. J Neurophysiol 2020; 124:1056-1071. [PMID: 32845769 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00736.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that the role of sensory cortices in perceptual decision making goes beyond the mere representation of the discriminative stimuli and additionally involves the representation of nonsensory variables such as reward expectation. However, the relevance of these representations for behavior is not clear. To address this issue, we trained rats to discriminate sounds in a single-interval forced-choice task and then confronted the animals with unsignaled blockwise changes of reward probabilities. We found that unequal reward probabilities for the two choice options led to substantial shifts in response bias without concomitant reduction in stimulus discrimination. Although decisional biases were on average less extreme than required to maximize overall reinforcement, a model-based analysis revealed that rats managed to harvest >97% of rewards. Neurons in auditory cortex recorded during task performance weakly differentiated the discriminative stimuli but more strongly the subsequent goal-directed movement. Although 10-20% of units exhibited significantly different firing rates between task epochs with different response biases, control experiments showed this to result from inflated false positive rates due to unspecific temporal correlations of spiking activity rather than changing reinforcement contingencies. Transient pharmacological inactivation of auditory cortex reduced sound discriminability without affecting other measures of performance, whereas inactivation of medial prefrontal cortex affected both discriminability and bias. Together, these results suggest that auditory cortex activity only weakly reflects decisional variables during flexible updating of stimulus-response-outcome contingencies and does not play a crucial role in sound-cued adaptive behavior, beyond the representation of the discriminative stimuli.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Recent evidence suggests that sensory cortex represents nonsensory variables such as reward expectation, but the relevance of these representations for behavior is not well understood. We show that rat auditory cortex (AC) is modulated during movement and reward anticipation in a sound-cued reward tracking task, whereas AC inactivation only impaired discrimination without affecting reward tracking, consistent with a predominantly sensory role of AC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanya V Stoilova
- Institute of Pathophysiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Beate Knauer
- Institute of Pathophysiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Stephanie Berg
- Institute of Pathophysiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Evelyn Rieber
- Institute of Pathophysiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Frank Jäkel
- Centre for Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Maik C Stüttgen
- Institute of Pathophysiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.,Focus Program Translational Neurosciences, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
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15
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Lenc T, Keller PE, Varlet M, Nozaradan S. Neural and Behavioral Evidence for Frequency-Selective Context Effects in Rhythm Processing in Humans. Cereb Cortex Commun 2020; 1:tgaa037. [PMID: 34296106 PMCID: PMC8152888 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgaa037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
When listening to music, people often perceive and move along with a periodic meter. However, the dynamics of mapping between meter perception and the acoustic cues to meter periodicities in the sensory input remain largely unknown. To capture these dynamics, we recorded the electroencephalography while nonmusician and musician participants listened to nonrepeating rhythmic sequences, where acoustic cues to meter frequencies either gradually decreased (from regular to degraded) or increased (from degraded to regular). The results revealed greater neural activity selectively elicited at meter frequencies when the sequence gradually changed from regular to degraded compared with the opposite. Importantly, this effect was unlikely to arise from overall gain, or low-level auditory processing, as revealed by physiological modeling. Moreover, the context effect was more pronounced in nonmusicians, who also demonstrated facilitated sensory-motor synchronization with the meter for sequences that started as regular. In contrast, musicians showed weaker effects of recent context in their neural responses and robust ability to move along with the meter irrespective of stimulus degradation. Together, our results demonstrate that brain activity elicited by rhythm does not only reflect passive tracking of stimulus features, but represents continuous integration of sensory input with recent context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas Lenc
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Peter E Keller
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Manuel Varlet
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
- School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Sylvie Nozaradan
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia
- Institute of Neuroscience (IONS), Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Brussels 1200, Belgium
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal QC H3C 3J7, Canada
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16
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Makov S, Zion Golumbic E. Irrelevant Predictions: Distractor Rhythmicity Modulates Neural Encoding in Auditory Cortex. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:5792-5805. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2019] [Revised: 04/10/2020] [Accepted: 05/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Dynamic attending theory suggests that predicting the timing of upcoming sounds can assist in focusing attention toward them. However, whether similar predictive processes are also applied to background noises and assist in guiding attention “away” from potential distractors, remains an open question. Here we address this question by manipulating the temporal predictability of distractor sounds in a dichotic listening selective attention task. We tested the influence of distractors’ temporal predictability on performance and on the neural encoding of sounds, by comparing the effects of Rhythmic versus Nonrhythmic distractors. Using magnetoencephalography we found that, indeed, the neural responses to both attended and distractor sounds were affected by distractors’ rhythmicity. Baseline activity preceding the onset of Rhythmic distractor sounds was enhanced relative to nonrhythmic distractor sounds, and sensory response to them was suppressed. Moreover, detection of nonmasked targets improved when distractors were Rhythmic, an effect accompanied by stronger lateralization of the neural responses to attended sounds to contralateral auditory cortex. These combined behavioral and neural results suggest that not only are temporal predictions formed for task-irrelevant sounds, but that these predictions bear functional significance for promoting selective attention and reducing distractibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiri Makov
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Elana Zion Golumbic
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel
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17
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Experience-Dependent Coding of Time-Dependent Frequency Trajectories by Off Responses in Secondary Auditory Cortex. J Neurosci 2020; 40:4469-4482. [PMID: 32327533 PMCID: PMC7275866 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2665-19.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2019] [Revised: 04/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Time-dependent frequency trajectories are an inherent feature of many behaviorally relevant sounds, such as species-specific vocalizations. Dynamic frequency trajectories, even in short sounds, often convey meaningful information, which may be used to differentiate sound categories. However, it is not clear what and where neural responses in the auditory cortical pathway are critical for conveying information about behaviorally relevant frequency trajectories, and how these responses change with experience. Here, we uncover tuning to subtle variations in frequency trajectories in auditory cortex of female mice. We found that auditory cortical responses could be modulated by variations in a pure tone trajectory as small as 1/24th of an octave, comparable to what has been reported in primates. In particular, late spiking after the end of a sound stimulus was more often sensitive to the sound's subtle frequency variation compared with spiking during the sound. Such “Off” responses in the adult A2, but not those in core auditory cortex, were plastic in a way that may enhance the representation of a newly acquired, behaviorally relevant sound category. We illustrate this with the maternal mouse paradigm for natural vocalization learning. By using an ethologically inspired paradigm to drive auditory responses in higher-order neurons, our results demonstrate that mouse auditory cortex can track fine frequency changes, which allows A2 Off responses in particular to better respond to pitch trajectories that distinguish behaviorally relevant, natural sound categories. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A whistle's pitch conveys meaning to its listener, as when dogs learn that distinct pitch trajectories whistled by their owner differentiate specific commands. Many species use pitch trajectories in their own vocalizations to distinguish sound categories, such as in human languages, such as Mandarin. How and where auditory neural activity encodes these pitch trajectories as their meaning is learned but not well understood, especially for short-duration sounds. We studied this in mice, where infants use ultrasonic whistles to communicate to adults. We found that late neural firing after a sound ends can be tuned to how the pitch changes in time, and that this response in a secondary auditory cortical field changes with experience to acquire a pitch change's meaning.
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18
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Shih JY, Yuan K, Atencio CA, Schreiner CE. Distinct Manifestations of Cooperative, Multidimensional Stimulus Representations in Different Auditory Forebrain Stations. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:3130-3147. [PMID: 32047882 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Classic spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) for auditory neurons are usually expressed as a single linear filter representing a single encoded stimulus feature. Multifilter STRF models represent the stimulus-response relationship of primary auditory cortex (A1) neurons more accurately because they can capture multiple stimulus features. To determine whether multifilter processing is unique to A1, we compared the utility of single-filter versus multifilter STRF models in the medial geniculate body (MGB), anterior auditory field (AAF), and A1 of ketamine-anesthetized cats. We estimated STRFs using both spike-triggered average (STA) and maximally informative dimension (MID) methods. Comparison of basic filter properties of first maximally informative dimension (MID1) and second maximally informative dimension (MID2) in the 3 stations revealed broader spectral integration of MID2s in MGBv and A1 as opposed to AAF. MID2 peak latency was substantially longer than for STAs and MID1s in all 3 stations. The 2-filter MID model captured more information and yielded better predictions in many neurons from all 3 areas but disproportionately more so in AAF and A1 compared with MGBv. Significantly, information-enhancing cooperation between the 2 MIDs was largely restricted to A1 neurons. This demonstrates significant differences in how these 3 forebrain stations process auditory information, as expressed in effective and synergistic multifilter processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Y Shih
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Coleman Memorial Laboratory, UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158-0444, USA
| | - Kexin Yuan
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Coleman Memorial Laboratory, UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158-0444, USA.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Craig A Atencio
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Coleman Memorial Laboratory, UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158-0444, USA
| | - Christoph E Schreiner
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Coleman Memorial Laboratory, UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158-0444, USA
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19
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Maor I, Shwartz-Ziv R, Feigin L, Elyada Y, Sompolinsky H, Mizrahi A. Neural Correlates of Learning Pure Tones or Natural Sounds in the Auditory Cortex. Front Neural Circuits 2020; 13:82. [PMID: 32047424 PMCID: PMC6997498 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2019.00082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Associative learning of pure tones is known to cause tonotopic map expansion in the auditory cortex (ACx), but the function this plasticity sub-serves is unclear. We developed an automated training platform called the “Educage,” which was used to train mice on a go/no-go auditory discrimination task to their perceptual limits, for difficult discriminations among pure tones or natural sounds. Spiking responses of excitatory and inhibitory parvalbumin (PV+) L2/3 neurons in mouse ACx revealed learning-induced overrepresentation of the learned frequencies, as expected from previous literature. The coordinated plasticity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons supports a role for PV+ neurons in homeostatic maintenance of excitation–inhibition balance within the circuit. Using a novel computational model to study auditory tuning curves, we show that overrepresentation of the learned tones does not necessarily improve discrimination performance of the network to these tones. In a separate set of experiments, we trained mice to discriminate among natural sounds. Perceptual learning of natural sounds induced “sparsening” and decorrelation of the neural response, consequently improving discrimination of these complex sounds. This signature of plasticity in A1 highlights its role in coding natural sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ido Maor
- Department of Neurobiology, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.,The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Ravid Shwartz-Ziv
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Libi Feigin
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Yishai Elyada
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Haim Sompolinsky
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.,The Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Adi Mizrahi
- Department of Neurobiology, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.,The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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20
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Worldwide trends in tracing poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment. Trends Analyt Chem 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2019.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 149] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
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21
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Targeted Cortical Manipulation of Auditory Perception. Neuron 2019; 104:1168-1179.e5. [PMID: 31727548 PMCID: PMC6926484 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.09.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2019] [Revised: 07/25/2019] [Accepted: 09/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Driving perception by direct activation of neural ensembles in cortex is a necessary step for achieving a causal understanding of the neural code for auditory perception and developing central sensory rehabilitation methods. Here, using optogenetic manipulations during an auditory discrimination task in mice, we show that auditory cortex can be short-circuited by coarser pathways for simple sound identification. Yet when the sensory decision becomes more complex, involving temporal integration of information, auditory cortex activity is required for sound discrimination and targeted activation of specific cortical ensembles changes perceptual decisions, as predicted by our readout of the cortical code. Hence, auditory cortex representations contribute to sound discriminations by refining decisions from parallel routes. Auditory cortex is dispensable for discrimination of dissimilar pure tones in mice Auditory cortex is involved in a sound discrimination requiring temporal integration Focal cortical activations bias choices in cortex-dependent discriminations Discrimination is faster for pure tones than for optogenetic cortical activations
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22
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Privat M, Romano SA, Pietri T, Jouary A, Boulanger-Weill J, Elbaz N, Duchemin A, Soares D, Sumbre G. Sensorimotor Transformations in the Zebrafish Auditory System. Curr Biol 2019; 29:4010-4023.e4. [PMID: 31708392 PMCID: PMC6892253 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2019] [Revised: 09/27/2019] [Accepted: 10/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Organisms use their sensory systems to acquire information from their environment and integrate this information to produce relevant behaviors. Nevertheless, how sensory information is converted into adequate motor patterns in the brain remains an open question. Here, we addressed this question using two-photon and light-sheet calcium imaging in intact, behaving zebrafish larvae. We monitored neural activity elicited by auditory stimuli while simultaneously recording tail movements. We observed a spatial organization of neural activity according to four different response profiles (frequency tuning curves), suggesting a low-dimensional representation of frequency information, maintained throughout the development of the larvae. Low frequencies (150-450 Hz) were locally processed in the hindbrain and elicited motor behaviors. In contrast, higher frequencies (900-1,000 Hz) rarely induced motor behaviors and were also represented in the midbrain. Finally, we found that the sensorimotor transformations in the zebrafish auditory system are a continuous and gradual process that involves the temporal integration of the sensory response in order to generate a motor behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Privat
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Sebastián A Romano
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France; Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Buenos Aires (IBioBA) - CONICET - Partner Institute of the Max Planck Society, Godoy Cruz 2390, C1425FQD Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Thomas Pietri
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Adrien Jouary
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France; Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon 1400-038, Portugal
| | - Jonathan Boulanger-Weill
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France; Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Nicolas Elbaz
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Auriane Duchemin
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Daphne Soares
- Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA
| | - Germán Sumbre
- Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), Département de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France.
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Auditory Cortex Contributes to Discrimination of Pure Tones. eNeuro 2019; 6:ENEURO.0340-19.2019. [PMID: 31591138 PMCID: PMC6795560 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0340-19.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2019] [Revised: 09/09/2019] [Accepted: 09/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The auditory cortex is topographically organized for sound frequency and contains highly selective frequency-tuned neurons, yet the role of auditory cortex in the perception of sound frequency remains unclear. Lesion studies have shown that auditory cortex is not essential for frequency discrimination of pure tones. However, transient pharmacological inactivation has been reported to impair frequency discrimination. This suggests the possibility that successful tone discrimination after recovery from lesion surgery could arise from long-term reorganization or plasticity of compensatory pathways. Here, we compared the effects of lesions and optogenetic suppression of auditory cortex on frequency discrimination in mice. We found that transient bilateral optogenetic suppression partially but significantly impaired discrimination performance. In contrast, bilateral electrolytic lesions of auditory cortex had no effect on performance of the identical task, even when tested only 4 h after lesion. This suggests that when auditory cortex is destroyed, an alternative pathway is almost immediately adequate for mediating frequency discrimination. Yet this alternative pathway is insufficient for task performance when auditory cortex is intact but has its activity suppressed. These results indicate a fundamental difference between the effects of brain lesions and optogenetic suppression, and suggest the existence of a rapid compensatory process possibly induced by injury.
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24
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Movement and VIP Interneuron Activation Differentially Modulate Encoding in Mouse Auditory Cortex. eNeuro 2019; 6:ENEURO.0164-19.2019. [PMID: 31481397 PMCID: PMC6751373 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0164-19.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2019] [Revised: 08/02/2019] [Accepted: 08/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Information processing in sensory cortex is highly sensitive to nonsensory variables such as anesthetic state, arousal, and task engagement. Recent work in mouse visual cortex suggests that evoked firing rates, stimulus–response mutual information, and encoding efficiency increase when animals are engaged in movement. A disinhibitory circuit appears central to this change: inhibitory neurons expressing vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) are activated during movement and disinhibit pyramidal cells by suppressing other inhibitory interneurons. Paradoxically, although movement activates a similar disinhibitory circuit in auditory cortex (ACtx), most ACtx studies report reduced spiking during movement. It is unclear whether the resulting changes in spike rates result in corresponding changes in stimulus–response mutual information. We examined ACtx responses evoked by tone cloud stimuli, in awake mice of both sexes, during spontaneous movement and still conditions. VIP+ cells were optogenetically activated on half of trials, permitting independent analysis of the consequences of movement and VIP activation, as well as their intersection. Movement decreased stimulus-related spike rates as well as mutual information and encoding efficiency. VIP interneuron activation tended to increase stimulus-evoked spike rates but not stimulus–response mutual information, thus reducing encoding efficiency. The intersection of movement and VIP activation was largely consistent with a linear combination of these main effects: VIP activation recovered movement-induced reduction in spike rates, but not information transfer.
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25
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Schicknick H, Henschke JU, Budinger E, Ohl FW, Gundelfinger ED, Tischmeyer W. β-adrenergic modulation of discrimination learning and memory in the auditory cortex. Eur J Neurosci 2019; 50:3141-3163. [PMID: 31162753 PMCID: PMC6900137 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2018] [Revised: 05/27/2019] [Accepted: 05/31/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Despite vast literature on catecholaminergic neuromodulation of auditory cortex functioning in general, knowledge about its role for long‐term memory formation is scarce. Our previous pharmacological studies on cortex‐dependent frequency‐modulated tone‐sweep discrimination learning of Mongolian gerbils showed that auditory‐cortical D1/5‐dopamine receptor activity facilitates memory consolidation and anterograde memory formation. Considering overlapping functions of D1/5‐dopamine receptors and β‐adrenoceptors, we hypothesised a role of β‐adrenergic signalling in the auditory cortex for sweep discrimination learning and memory. Supporting this hypothesis, the β1/2‐adrenoceptor antagonist propranolol bilaterally applied to the gerbil auditory cortex after task acquisition prevented the discrimination increment that was normally monitored 1 day later. The increment in the total number of hurdle crossings performed in response to the sweeps per se was normal. Propranolol infusion after the seventh training session suppressed the previously established sweep discrimination. The suppressive effect required antagonist injection in a narrow post‐session time window. When applied to the auditory cortex 1 day before initial conditioning, β1‐adrenoceptor‐antagonising and β1‐adrenoceptor‐stimulating agents retarded and facilitated, respectively, sweep discrimination learning, whereas β2‐selective drugs were ineffective. In contrast, single‐sweep detection learning was normal after propranolol infusion. By immunohistochemistry, β1‐ and β2‐adrenoceptors were identified on the neuropil and somata of pyramidal and non‐pyramidal neurons of the gerbil auditory cortex. The present findings suggest that β‐adrenergic signalling in the auditory cortex has task‐related importance for discrimination learning of complex sounds: as previously shown for D1/5‐dopamine receptor signalling, β‐adrenoceptor activity supports long‐term memory consolidation and reconsolidation; additionally, tonic input through β1‐adrenoceptors may control mechanisms permissive for memory acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Horst Schicknick
- Special Lab Molecular Biological Techniques, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Julia U Henschke
- Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Eike Budinger
- Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Frank W Ohl
- Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.,Institute of Biology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Eckart D Gundelfinger
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.,Department Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Molecular Neurobiology, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Tischmeyer
- Special Lab Molecular Biological Techniques, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
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26
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Kommajosyula SP, Cai R, Bartlett E, Caspary DM. Top-down or bottom up: decreased stimulus salience increases responses to predictable stimuli of auditory thalamic neurons. J Physiol 2019; 597:2767-2784. [PMID: 30924931 DOI: 10.1113/jp277450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2018] [Accepted: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
KEY POINTS Temporal imprecision leads to deficits in the comprehension of signals in cluttered acoustic environments, and the elderly are shown to use cognitive resources to disambiguate these signals. To mimic ageing in young rats, we delivered sound signals that are temporally degraded, which led to temporally imprecise neural codes. Instead of adaptation to repeated stimuli, with degraded signals, there was a relative increase in firing rates, similar to that seen in aged rats. We interpret this increase with repetition as a repair mechanism for strengthening the internal representations of degraded signals by the higher-order structures. ABSTRACT To better understand speech in challenging environments, older adults increasingly use top-down cognitive and contextual resources. The medial geniculate body (MGB) integrates ascending inputs with descending predictions to dynamically gate auditory representations based on salience and context. A previous MGB single-unit study found an increased preference for predictable sinusoidal amplitude modulated (SAM) stimuli in aged rats relative to young rats. The results suggested that the age-degraded/jittered up-stream acoustic code may engender an increased preference for predictable/repeating acoustic signals, possibly reflecting increased use of top-down resources. In the present study, we recorded from units in young-adult MGB, comparing responses to standard SAM with those evoked by less salient SAM (degraded) stimuli. We hypothesized that degrading the SAM stimulus would simulate the degraded ascending acoustic code seen in the elderly, increasing the preference for predictable stimuli. Single units were recorded from clusters of advanceable tetrodes implanted above the MGB of young-adult awake rats. Less salient SAM significantly increased the preference for predictable stimuli, especially at higher modulation frequencies. Rather than adaptation, higher modulation frequencies elicited increased numbers of spikes with each successive trial/repeat of the less salient SAM. These findings are consistent with previous findings obtained in aged rats suggesting that less salient acoustic signals engage the additional use of top-down resources, as reflected by an increased preference for repeating stimuli that enhance the representation of complex environmental/communication sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Srinivasa P Kommajosyula
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, , Department of Pharmacology, Springfield, IL, USA
| | - Rui Cai
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, , Department of Pharmacology, Springfield, IL, USA
| | - Edward Bartlett
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Donald M Caspary
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, , Department of Pharmacology, Springfield, IL, USA
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Weisenburger S, Tejera F, Demas J, Chen B, Manley J, Sparks FT, Martínez Traub F, Daigle T, Zeng H, Losonczy A, Vaziri A. Volumetric Ca 2+ Imaging in the Mouse Brain Using Hybrid Multiplexed Sculpted Light Microscopy. Cell 2019; 177:1050-1066.e14. [PMID: 30982596 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2018] [Revised: 12/19/2018] [Accepted: 03/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Calcium imaging using two-photon scanning microscopy has become an essential tool in neuroscience. However, in its typical implementation, the tradeoffs between fields of view, acquisition speeds, and depth restrictions in scattering brain tissue pose severe limitations. Here, using an integrated systems-wide optimization approach combined with multiple technical innovations, we introduce a new design paradigm for optical microscopy based on maximizing biological information while maintaining the fidelity of obtained neuron signals. Our modular design utilizes hybrid multi-photon acquisition and allows volumetric recording of neuroactivity at single-cell resolution within up to 1 × 1 × 1.22 mm volumes at up to 17 Hz in awake behaving mice. We establish the capabilities and potential of the different configurations of our imaging system at depth and across brain regions by applying it to in vivo recording of up to 12,000 neurons in mouse auditory cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and hippocampus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siegfried Weisenburger
- Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Frank Tejera
- Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jeffrey Demas
- Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Brandon Chen
- Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jason Manley
- Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Fraser T Sparks
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Tanya Daigle
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Hongkui Zeng
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Attila Losonczy
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; The Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Alipasha Vaziri
- Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA; Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria; The Kavli Neural Systems Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
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Cortical recruitment determines learning dynamics and strategy. Nat Commun 2019; 10:1479. [PMID: 30931939 PMCID: PMC6443669 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09450-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2018] [Accepted: 03/12/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Salience is a broad and widely used concept in neuroscience whose neuronal correlates, however, remain elusive. In behavioral conditioning, salience is used to explain various effects, such as stimulus overshadowing, and refers to how fast and strongly a stimulus can be associated with a conditioned event. Here, we identify sounds of equal intensity and perceptual detectability, which due to their spectro-temporal content recruit different levels of population activity in mouse auditory cortex. When using these sounds as cues in a Go/NoGo discrimination task, the degree of cortical recruitment matches the salience parameter of a reinforcement learning model used to analyze learning speed. We test an essential prediction of this model by training mice to discriminate light-sculpted optogenetic activity patterns in auditory cortex, and verify that cortical recruitment causally determines association or overshadowing of the stimulus components. This demonstrates that cortical recruitment underlies major aspects of stimulus salience during reinforcement learning.
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Abstract
Our ability to make sense of the auditory world results from neural processing that begins in the ear, goes through multiple subcortical areas, and continues in the cortex. The specific contribution of the auditory cortex to this chain of processing is far from understood. Although many of the properties of neurons in the auditory cortex resemble those of subcortical neurons, they show somewhat more complex selectivity for sound features, which is likely to be important for the analysis of natural sounds, such as speech, in real-life listening conditions. Furthermore, recent work has shown that auditory cortical processing is highly context-dependent, integrates auditory inputs with other sensory and motor signals, depends on experience, and is shaped by cognitive demands, such as attention. Thus, in addition to being the locus for more complex sound selectivity, the auditory cortex is increasingly understood to be an integral part of the network of brain regions responsible for prediction, auditory perceptual decision-making, and learning. In this review, we focus on three key areas that are contributing to this understanding: the sound features that are preferentially represented by cortical neurons, the spatial organization of those preferences, and the cognitive roles of the auditory cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J King
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PT, UK
| | - Sundeep Teki
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PT, UK
| | - Ben D B Willmore
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PT, UK
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