Plasticity of spectrotemporal processing in awake rat auditory cortex

描述(申请人提供)：本项目的长期目标是了解时间可塑性如何影响初级听觉皮质(AI)回路的功能。为此，本项目的两个具体目标是：(1)评估正常听觉皮质的频谱时间加工；(2)评估时间可塑性对经过时间调制知觉学习的大鼠人工智能的影响。清醒大鼠的准备将用于生理记录。多通道记录探头将用于对人工智能所有层的神经元进行采样。将根据记录的神经波形确定神经元的类别，即快峰电位(假定的抑制性中间神经元)或规则峰电位(假定的兴奋性神经元)。从光谱数据中，将获得时间感受野(STRF)，并对其进行跨层和跨神经元类别的比较。另一组大鼠将接受时间调节的行为训练。一旦长期学习得到巩固，人工智能将被检查由于时间可塑性而导致的频谱处理的变化。由于学习诱导的可塑性导致的神经计算的变化将与层和神经元类别相关。这些结果将利用STRF来评估听觉皮质中皮质柱的功能如何随着时间可塑性的变化而变化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term objectives of this project are to understand how temporal plasticity affects the function of primary auditory cortex (AI) circuits. To this end, the two specific aims in this project are: (1) evaluate spectrotemporal processing in normal auditory cortex; (2) evaluate the effects of temporal plasticity on AI of rats that have undergone perceptual learning for temporal modulations. The awake rat preparation will be used for physiological recordings. Multi-channel recording probes will be used to sample from neurons across all layers in AI. The class of neuron, fast-spiking (putative inhibitory interneuron or regular-spiking (putative excitatory neuron), will be determined from the recorded neural waveforms. From the data spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) will be obtained and compared across layers and neuron classes. Another group of rats will undergo behavioral training for temporal modulations. Once long-term learning has been consolidated, AI will be examined for changes in spectrotemporal processing due to temporal plasticity. Changes in neural computations due to learning-induced plasticity will be correlated with layer and neuron class. These results will utilize STRFs to assess how the function of the cortical column in auditory cortex changes in response to temporal plasticity.