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Homma NY, See JZ, Atencio CA, Hu C, Downer JD, Beitel RE, Cheung SW, Najafabadi MS, Olsen T, Bigelow J, Hasenstaub AR, Malone BJ, Schreiner CE. Receptive-field nonlinearities in primary auditory cortex: a comparative perspective. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae364. [PMID: 39270676 PMCID: PMC11398879 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae364] [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: 07/06/2023] [Revised: 08/14/2024] [Accepted: 08/21/2024] [Indexed: 09/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Cortical processing of auditory information can be affected by interspecies differences as well as brain states. Here we compare multifeature spectro-temporal receptive fields (STRFs) and associated input/output functions or nonlinearities (NLs) of neurons in primary auditory cortex (AC) of four mammalian species. Single-unit recordings were performed in awake animals (female squirrel monkeys, female, and male mice) and anesthetized animals (female squirrel monkeys, rats, and cats). Neuronal responses were modeled as consisting of two STRFs and their associated NLs. The NLs for the STRF with the highest information content show a broad distribution between linear and quadratic forms. In awake animals, we find a higher percentage of quadratic-like NLs as opposed to more linear NLs in anesthetized animals. Moderate sex differences of the shape of NLs were observed between male and female unanesthetized mice. This indicates that the core AC possesses a rich variety of potential computations, particularly in awake animals, suggesting that multiple computational algorithms are at play to enable the auditory system's robust recognition of auditory events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natsumi Y Homma
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jermyn Z See
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Craig A Atencio
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Congcong Hu
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Joshua D Downer
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Center of Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Newton Ct, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Ralph E Beitel
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Steven W Cheung
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Mina Sadeghi Najafabadi
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Timothy Olsen
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - James Bigelow
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Andrea R Hasenstaub
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Brian J Malone
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Center of Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Newton Ct, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Christoph E Schreiner
- John & Edward Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
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Homma NY, Atencio CA, Schreiner CE. Plasticity of Multidimensional Receptive Fields in Core Rat Auditory Cortex Directed by Sound Statistics. Neuroscience 2021; 467:150-170. [PMID: 33951506 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.04.028] [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: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Sensory cortical neurons can nonlinearly integrate a wide range of inputs. The outcome of this nonlinear process can be approximated by more than one receptive field component or filter to characterize the ensuing stimulus preference. The functional properties of multidimensional filters are, however, not well understood. Here we estimated two spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) per neuron using maximally informative dimension analysis. We compared their temporal and spectral modulation properties and determined the stimulus information captured by the two STRFs in core rat auditory cortical fields, primary auditory cortex (A1) and ventral auditory field (VAF). The first STRF is the dominant filter and acts as a sound feature detector in both fields. The second STRF is less feature specific, preferred lower modulations, and had less spike information compared to the first STRF. The information jointly captured by the two STRFs was larger than that captured by the sum of the individual STRFs, reflecting nonlinear interactions of two filters. This information gain was larger in A1. We next determined how the acoustic environment affects the structure and relationship of these two STRFs. Rats were exposed to moderate levels of spectrotemporally modulated noise during development. Noise exposure strongly altered the spectrotemporal preference of the first STRF in both cortical fields. The interaction between the two STRFs was reduced by noise exposure in A1 but not in VAF. The results reveal new functional distinctions between A1 and VAF indicating that (i) A1 has stronger interactions of the two STRFs than VAF, (ii) noise exposure diminishes modulation parameter representation contained in the noise more strongly for the first STRF in both fields, and (iii) plasticity induced by noise exposure can affect the strength of filter interactions in A1. Taken together, ascertaining two STRFs per neuron enhances the understanding of cortical information processing and plasticity effects in core auditory cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natsumi Y Homma
- Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA.
| | - Craig A Atencio
- Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA
| | - Christoph E Schreiner
- Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA
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