scholarly journals Midbrain auditory selectivity to natural sounds

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (9) ◽  
pp. 2508-2513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melville J. Wohlgemuth ◽  
Cynthia F. Moss
Keyword(s):  
Generalized Linear Model ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Natural Sounds ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Specific Frequency ◽  
Response Profiles ◽  
Single Unit Recordings ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Natural Statistics

This study investigated auditory stimulus selectivity in the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) of the echolocating bat, an animal that relies on hearing to guide its orienting behaviors. Multichannel, single-unit recordings were taken across laminae of the midbrain SC of the awake, passively listening big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Species-specific frequency-modulated (FM) echolocation sound sequences with dynamic spectrotemporal features served as acoustic stimuli along with artificial sound sequences matched in bandwidth, amplitude, and duration but differing in spectrotemporal structure. Neurons in dorsal sensory regions of the bat SC responded selectively to elements within the FM sound sequences, whereas neurons in ventral sensorimotor regions showed broad response profiles to natural and artificial stimuli. Moreover, a generalized linear model (GLM) constructed on responses in the dorsal SC to artificial linear FM stimuli failed to predict responses to natural sounds and vice versa, but the GLM produced accurate response predictions in ventral SC neurons. This result suggests that auditory selectivity in the dorsal extent of the bat SC arises through nonlinear mechanisms, which extract species-specific sensory information. Importantly, auditory selectivity appeared only in responses to stimuli containing the natural statistics of acoustic signals used by the bat for spatial orientation—sonar vocalizations—offering support for the hypothesis that sensory selectivity enables rapid species-specific orienting behaviors. The results of this study are the first, to our knowledge, to show auditory spectrotemporal selectivity to natural stimuli in SC neurons and serve to inform a more general understanding of mechanisms guiding sensory selectivity for natural, goal-directed orienting behaviors.

scholarly journals A Generalized Linear Model for Estimating Spectrotemporal Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Sounds

PLoS ONE ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e16104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Calabrese ◽  
Joseph W. Schumacher ◽  
David M. Schneider ◽  
Liam Paninski ◽  
Sarah M. N. Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Linear Model ◽  
Generalized Linear Model ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Natural Sounds ◽  
Spectrotemporal Receptive Fields

scholarly journals Enhanced attentional gain as a mechanism for generalized perceptual learning in human visual cortex

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (5) ◽  
pp. 1217-1227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Byers ◽  
John T. Serences
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Broad Class ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Human Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Response Profiles ◽  
Sensory Responses

Learning to better discriminate a specific visual feature (i.e., a specific orientation in a specific region of space) has been associated with plasticity in early visual areas ( sensory modulation) and with improvements in the transmission of sensory information from early visual areas to downstream sensorimotor and decision regions ( enhanced readout). However, in many real-world scenarios that require perceptual expertise, observers need to efficiently process numerous exemplars from a broad stimulus class as opposed to just a single stimulus feature. Some previous data suggest that perceptual learning leads to highly specific neural modulations that support the discrimination of specific trained features. However, the extent to which perceptual learning acts to improve the discriminability of a broad class of stimuli via the modulation of sensory responses in human visual cortex remains largely unknown. Here, we used functional MRI and a multivariate analysis method to reconstruct orientation-selective response profiles based on activation patterns in the early visual cortex before and after subjects learned to discriminate small offsets in a set of grating stimuli that were rendered in one of nine possible orientations. Behavioral performance improved across 10 training sessions, and there was a training-related increase in the amplitude of orientation-selective response profiles in V1, V2, and V3 when orientation was task relevant compared with when it was task irrelevant. These results suggest that generalized perceptual learning can lead to modified responses in the early visual cortex in a manner that is suitable for supporting improved discriminability of stimuli drawn from a large set of exemplars.

scholarly journals cacna2d3, a voltage-gated calcium channel subunit, functions in vertebrate habituation learning and the startle sensitivity threshold

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Santistevan ◽  
Jessica C. Nelson ◽  
Elelbin A. Ortiz ◽  
Andrew H. Miller ◽  
Dima Kenj Halabi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Acoustic Startle ◽  
Acoustic Startle Response ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Sensitivity Threshold ◽  
Voltage Gated ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Gated Channel ◽  
The Central Nervous System

AbstractThe ability to filter sensory information into relevant versus irrelevant stimuli is a fundamental, conserved property of the central nervous system and is accomplished in part through habituation learning. Synaptic plasticity that underlies habituation learning has been described at the cellular level, yet the genetic regulators of this plasticity remain poorly understood, as do circuits that mediate sensory filtering. A forward genetic screen for zebrafish genes that control habituation learning identified a mutant allele doryp177 that caused reduced habituation of the acoustic startle response. Whole-genome sequencing identified the calcium voltage-gated channel auxiliary subunit alpha-2/delta-3 (cacna2d3) as a candidate gene affected in doryp177 mutants. Behavioral characterization of larvae homozygous for two additional, independently derived mutant alleles of cacna2d3, together with failure of these alleles to complement doryp177, confirmed a critical role for cacna2d3 in habituation learning. Notably, detailed analyses of the acoustic response in mutant larvae also revealed increased startle sensitivity to acoustic stimuli, suggesting a broader role for cacna2d3 in controlling innate response thresholds to acoustic stimuli. Taken together, our data demonstrate a critical role for cacna2d3 in sensory filtering, a process that is disrupted in human CNS disorders, e.g. ADHD, schizophrenia, and autism.

scholarly journals Imprinting on time-structured acoustic stimuli in ducklings

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Monteiro ◽  
Tom Hart ◽  
Alex Kacelnik
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Anas Platyrhynchos ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Natural Sounds ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Timing Information ◽  
Active Selection ◽  
Filial Imprinting

Filial imprinting is a dedicated learning process that lacks explicit reinforcement. The phenomenon itself is narrowly heritably canalized, but its content, the representation of the parental object, reflects the circumstances of the newborn. Imprinting has recently been shown to be even more subtle and complex than previously envisaged, since ducklings and chicks are now known to select and represent for later generalization abstract conceptual properties of the objects they perceive as neonates, including movement pattern, heterogeneity and inter-component relationships of same or different. Here, we investigate day-old Mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) ducklings’ bias towards imprinting on acoustic stimuli made from mallards’ vocalizations as opposed to white noise, whether they imprint on the temporal structure of brief acoustic stimuli of either kind, and whether they generalize timing information across the two sounds. Our data are consistent with a strong innate preference for natural sounds, but do not reliably establish sensitivity to temporal relations. This fits with the view that imprinting includes the establishment of representations of both primary percepts and selective abstract properties of their early perceptual input, meshing together genetically transmitted prior pre-dispositions with active selection and processing of the perceptual input.

Response similarity to odors in olfactory bulb output cells presumed to be connected to the same glomerulus: electrophysiological study using simultaneous single-unit recordings

1990 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Buonviso ◽  
M. A. Chaput
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Single Unit ◽  
Receptor Cell ◽  
Primary Dendrite ◽  
Electrophysiological Study ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Response Profile ◽  
Response Profiles ◽  
Single Unit Recordings

1. The glomeruli of the olfactory bulb are discrete anatomic structures in which the terminals of receptor cell axons make extensive contacts with the primary dendrites of the mitral and tufted output cells. In mammals, each mitral and deep tufted (M/T) cell possesses a single primary dendrite and sends it toward the glomerulus situated just in front of its somata. 2. We tested the hypothesis that the glomeruli, which appear to form anatomic units, could act to some extent as functional units. A unitary functioning implies that the M/T cells connected to the same glomerulus will more often display similar responses to odorants than cells having no common glomerular relationships, including cells related to adjacent glomeruli. 3. In anesthetized adult rats, we recorded the extracellular single-unit responses of pairs of M/T cells to a series of five odorants. Recordings were performed with the use of twin microelectrodes whose tips were separated either by less than 40 or by 150-200 microns. Because of the olfactory bulb organization, we assumed that the close cells, recorded at a distance less than 40 microns, were more often connected to the same glomerulus, whereas the distant cells, recorded at a distance of 150-200 microns, were more often connected to adjacent glomeruli. 4. Stimulus-evoked changes in firing rate were classified as either excitatory (+), suppressive (-), or null (0) responses. The collection of response types of a given cell to the 5 odorants composed its response profile. Response profiles were used to compare the responsiveness within close and within distant cell pairs with that observed within control pairs of cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

scholarly journals Dolphins Adjust Species-Specific Frequency Parameters to Compensate for Increasing Background Noise

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. e0121711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Papale ◽  
Marco Gamba ◽  
Monica Perez-Gil ◽  
Vidal Martel Martin ◽  
Cristina Giacoma
Keyword(s):  
Background Noise ◽  
Specific Frequency ◽  
Species Specific

scholarly journals Effects of Acetylcholine and Atropine on Plasticity of Central Auditory Neurons Caused by Conditioning in Bats

2001 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqing Ji ◽  
Enquan Gao ◽  
Nobuo Suga
Keyword(s):  
Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Auditory Neurons ◽  
Tuning Curves ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Cholinergic Basal Forebrain ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Central Auditory Neurons

In the big brown bat ( Eptesicus fuscus), conditioning with acoustic stimuli followed by electric leg-stimulation causes shifts in frequency-tuning curves and best frequencies (hereafter BF shifts) of collicular and cortical neurons, i.e., reorganization of the cochleotopic (frequency) maps in the inferior colliculus (IC) and auditory cortex (AC). The collicular BF shift recovers 180 min after the conditioning, but the cortical BF shift lasts longer than 26 h. The collicular BF shift is not caused by conditioning, as the AC is inactivated during conditioning. Therefore it has been concluded that the collicular BF shift is caused by the corticofugal auditory system. The collicular and cortical BF shifts both are not caused by conditioning as the somatosensory cortex is inactivated during conditioning. Therefore it has been hypothesized that the cortical BF shift is mostly caused by both the subcortical (e.g., collicular) BF shift and the activity of nonauditory systems such as the somatosensory cortex excited by an unconditioned leg-stimulation and the cholinergic basal forebrain. The main aims of our present studies are to examine whether acetylcholine (ACh) applied to the AC augments the collicular and cortical BF shifts caused by the conditioning and whether atropine applied to the AC abolishes the cortical BF shift but not the collicular BF shift, as expected from the preceding hypothesis. In the awake bat, we made the following findings. ACh applied to the AC augments not only the cortical BF shift but also the collicular BF shift through the corticofugal system. Atropine applied to the AC reduces the collicular BF shift and abolishes the cortical BF shift which otherwise would be caused. ACh applied to the IC significantly augments the collicular BF shift but affects the cortical BF shift only slightly. ACh makes the cortical BF shift long-lasting beyond 4 h, but it cannot make the collicular BF shift long-lasting beyond 3 h. Atropine applied to the IC abolishes the collicular BF shift. It reduces the cortical BF shift but does not abolish it. Our findings favor the hypothesis that the BF shifts evoked by the corticofugal system, and an increased ACh level in the AC evoked by the basal forebrain are both necessary to evoke a long-lasting cortical BF shift.

A Search for Tonal Pattern Perception in Cebus Monkeys: Why Monkeys Can't Hum a Tune

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. D'Amato
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Average Frequency ◽  
Pattern Perception ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Tonal Pattern ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Discriminative Behavior ◽  
Tonal Patterns ◽  
Cebus Monkeys ◽  
Species Specific

This article reviews a series of experiments aimed at assessing the capacity of cebus monkeys and rats for tonal pattern perception (sensitivity to frequency contour). The animals' ability to differentiate between two tunes (structured sequences of tones) that shared several component notes and were similar in their average frequency suggested tonal pattern perception in both species. Detailed analysis of the basis of their discriminative behavior revealed, however, that the latter was completely controlled by local cues. Additional studies confirmed this finding and showed that the cognitive limitation was not, in the case of the monkeys, due to a generally impoverished capacity for processing acoustic stimuli or to an unduly truncated auditory short- term store. Many species of songbirds also seem remarkably deficient in their ability to perceive the tonal patterns of non-species-specific acoustic stimuli, which may be widespread among animals. Some implications of this striking difference in the auditory processing capacities of animals and humans are briefly discussed.

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