scholarly journals Sequential Transmission of Task-Relevant Information in Cortical Neuronal Networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolas Francis ◽  
Shoutik Mukherjee ◽  
Loren Kocillari ◽  
Stefano Panzeri ◽  
Behtash Babadi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Pure Tone ◽  
Neuronal Networks ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Functional Networks ◽  
Behavioral Choice

During auditory task performance, cortical processing of task-relevant information enables mammals to recognize sensory input and flexibly select behavioral responses. In mouse auditory cortex, small neuronal networks encode behavioral choice during a pure-tone detection task, but it is poorly understood how neuronal networks encode behavioral choice during a pure-tone discrimination task where tones have to be categorized into targets and non-targets. While the interactions between networked neurons are thought to encode behavioral choice, it remains unclear how patterns of neuronal network activity indicate the transmission of task-relevant information within the network. To this end, we trained mice to behaviorally discriminate target vs. non-target pure-tones while we used in vivo 2-photon imaging to record neuronal population activity in primary auditory cortex layer 2/3. We found that during task performance, a specialized subset of neurons transiently encoded intersection information, i.e., sensory information that was used to inform behavioral choice. Granger causality analysis showed that these neurons formed functional networks in which task-relevant information was transmitted sequentially between neurons. Differences in network structure between target and non-target sounds encoded behavioral choice. Correct behavioral choices were associated with shorter timescale communication between neurons. In summary, we find that specialized neuronal populations in auditory cortex form functional networks during auditory task performance whose structures depend on both sensory input and behavioral choice.

scholarly journals Laminar profile of task-related plasticity in ferret primary auditory cortex

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolas A. Francis ◽  
Diego Elgueda ◽  
Bernhard Englitz ◽  
Jonathan B. Fritz ◽  
Shihab A. Shamma
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Current Source ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Primary Auditory Cortex ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Auditory Target ◽  
High Gamma

AbstractRapid task-related plasticity is a neural correlate of selective attention in primary auditory cortex (A1). Top-down feedback from higher-order cortex may drive task-related plasticity in A1, characterized by enhanced neural representation of behaviorally meaningful sounds during auditory task performance. Since intracortical connectivity is greater within A1 layers 2/3 (L2/3) than in layers 4-6 (L4-6), we hypothesized that enhanced representation of behaviorally meaningful sounds might be greater in A1 L2/3 than L4-6. To test this hypothesis and study the laminar profile of task-related plasticity, we trained 2 ferrets to detect pure tones while we recorded laminar activity across a 1.8 mm depth in A1. In each experiment, we analyzed current-source densities (CSDs), high-gamma local field potentials (LFPs), and multi-unit spiking in response to identical acoustic stimuli during both passive listening and active task performance. We found that neural responses to auditory targets were enhanced during task performance, and target enhancement was greater in L2/3 than in L4-6. Spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) computed from CSDs, high-gamma LFPs, and multi-unit spiking showed similar increases in auditory target selectivity, also greatest in L2/3. Our results suggest that activity within intracortical networks plays a key role in shaping the underlying neural mechanisms of selective attention.

scholarly journals Role of Mammalian Auditory Cortex in the Perception of Elementary Sound Properties

2001 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 2350-2358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjiv K. Talwar ◽  
Pawel G. Musial ◽  
George L. Gerstein
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potentials ◽  
Mammalian Species ◽  
Sound Intensity ◽  
Primary Auditory Cortex ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Experimental Conditions

Studies in several mammalian species have demonstrated that bilateral ablations of the auditory cortex have little effect on simple sound intensity and frequency-based behaviors. In the rat, for example, early experiments have shown that auditory ablations result in virtually no effect on the rat's ability to either detect tones or discriminate frequencies. Such lesion experiments, however, typically examine an animal's performance some time after recovery from ablation surgery. As such, they demonstrate that the cortex is not essential for simple auditory behaviors in the long run. Our study further explores the role of cortex in basic auditory perception by examining whether the cortex is normally involved in these behaviors. In these experiments we reversibly inactivated the rat primary auditory cortex (AI) using the GABA agonist muscimol, while the animals performed a simple auditory task. At the same time we monitored the rat's auditory activity by recording auditory evoked potentials (AEP) from the cortical surface. In contrast to lesion studies, the rapid time course of these experimental conditions preclude reorganization of the auditory system that might otherwise compensate for the loss of cortical processing. Soon after bilateral muscimol application to their AI region, our rats exhibited an acute and profound inability to detect tones. After a few hours this state was followed by a gradual recovery of normal hearing, first of tone detection and, much later, of the ability to discriminate frequencies. Surface muscimol application, at the same time, drastically altered the normal rat AEP. Some of the normal AEP components vanished nearly instantaneously to unveil an underlying waveform, whose size was related to the severity of accompanying behavioral deficits. These results strongly suggest that the cortex is directly involved in basic acoustic processing. Along with observations from accompanying multiunit experiments that related the AEP to AI neuronal activity, our results suggest that a critical amount of activity in the auditory cortex is necessary for normal hearing. It is likely that the involvement of the cortex in simple auditory perceptions has hitherto not been clearly understood because of underlying recovery processes that, in the long-term, safeguard fundamental auditory abilities after cortical injury.

scholarly journals Functional Role of Auditory Cortex in Frequency Processing and Pitch Perception

2002 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Jude Tramo ◽  
Gaurav D. Shah ◽  
Louis D. Braida
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Pure Tone ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Frequency Resolution ◽  
Frequency Change ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Difference Thresholds ◽  
Frequency Processing

Microelectrode studies in nonhuman primates and other mammals have demonstrated that many neurons in auditory cortex are excited by pure tone stimulation only when the tone's frequency lies within a narrow range of the audible spectrum. However, the effects of auditory cortex lesions in animals and humans have been interpreted as evidence against the notion that neuronal frequency selectivity is functionally relevant to frequency discrimination. Here we report psychophysical and anatomical evidence in favor of the hypothesis that fine-grained frequency resolution at the perceptual level relies on neuronal frequency selectivity in auditory cortex. An adaptive procedure was used to measure difference thresholds for pure tone frequency discrimination in five humans with focal brain lesions and eight normal controls. Only the patient with bilateral lesions of primary auditory cortex and surrounding areas showed markedly elevated frequency difference thresholds: Weber fractions for frequency direction discrimination (“higher”—“lower” pitch judgments) were about eightfold higher than Weber fractions measured in patients with unilateral lesions of auditory cortex, auditory midbrain, or dorsolateral frontal cortex; Weber fractions for frequency change discrimination (“same”—“different” pitch judgments) were about seven times higher. In contrast, pure-tone detection thresholds, difference thresholds for pure tone duration discrimination centered at 500 ms, difference thresholds for vibrotactile intensity discrimination, and judgments of visual line orientation were within normal limits or only mildly impaired following bilateral auditory cortex lesions. In light of current knowledge about the physiology and anatomy of primate auditory cortex and a review of previous lesion studies, we interpret the present results as evidence that fine-grained frequency processing at the perceptual level relies on the integrity of finely tuned neurons in auditory cortex.

scholarly journals Computational fMRI Reveals Separable Representations Of Stimulus and Behavioral Choice In Auditory Cortex: A Tool for Studying the Locus Coeruleus Circuit

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimia Yaghoubi ◽  
Mahsa Alizadeh Shalchy ◽  
Sana Hussain ◽  
Xu Chen ◽  
Ilana Benette ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Behavioral Choice

scholarly journals L-type voltage-gated calcium channel regulation of in vitro human cortical neuronal networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Plumbly ◽  
Nick Brandon ◽  
Tarek Z. Deeb ◽  
Jeremy Hall ◽  
Adrian J. Harwood
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Channel ◽  
Neuronal Networks ◽  
Gene Mutations ◽  
Synaptic Function ◽  
Neuronal Firing ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Electrode Arrays ◽  
Voltage Gated ◽  
Voltage Gated Calcium Channel

Abstract The combination of in vitro multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) and the neuronal differentiation of stem cells offers the capability to study human neuronal networks from patient or engineered human cell lines. Here, we use MEA-based assays to probe synaptic function and network interactions of hiPSC-derived neurons. Neuronal network behaviour first emerges at approximately 30 days of culture and is driven by glutamate neurotransmission. Over a further 30 days, inhibitory GABAergic signalling shapes network behaviour into a synchronous regular pattern of burst firing activity and low activity periods. Gene mutations in L-type voltage gated calcium channel subunit genes are strongly implicated as genetic risk factors for the development of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We find that, although basal neuronal firing rate is unaffected, there is a dose-dependent effect of L-type voltage gated calcium channel inhibitors on synchronous firing patterns of our hiPSC-derived neural networks. This demonstrates that MEA assays have sufficient sensitivity to detect changes in patterns of neuronal interaction that may arise from hypo-function of psychiatric risk genes. Our study highlights the utility of in vitro MEA based platforms for the study of hiPSC neural network activity and their potential use in novel compound screening.

Potentials evoked by sound in the auditory cortex of the cat

1961 ◽  
Vol 200 (6) ◽  
pp. 1219-1225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Gumnit ◽  
Robert G. Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
White Noise ◽  
Pure Tone ◽  
Evoked Response ◽  
Moderate Intensity ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Positive Wave ◽  
Natural Sleep ◽  
Negative Shift ◽  
Long Duration

The electrical responses of the auditory cortex of awake, loosely restrained cats were examined with chronically implanted calomel electrodes and d-c recording systems. Stimulation with a single click evoked a complex triphasic response in which a large surface positive potential (duration, 250 msec) followed the classic diphasic response. This second positive wave was absent in natural sleep and under light barbiturate anesthesia. A similar late positive wave of long duration, evoked by a flash of light, was found in the visual cortex. A rapid series of clicks evoked a surface negative shift which was maintained for the duration of the stimulus. A tone or white noise presented for several seconds evoked a negative shift of the same general form. A pure tone of moderate intensity presented simultaneously with a click greatly enhanced the click-evoked response. White noise of moderate intensity presented simultaneously with a click diminished the size of the click-evoked response.

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