Development of hemispheric specializations during Auditory Cortex critical periods

听觉皮层关键期半球专业化的发展

• 批准号: 10644036
• 负责人: Hysell Viviana Oviedo
• 金额: $ 15.12万
• 依托单位: CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-09 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10644036
• 关键词: Address; Animal Model; Animals; Area; Auditory; Auditory area; Behavioral; Behavioral Assay; Biological Assay; Biological Models; Brain; Cells; Cerebral Dominance; Communication; Communication impairment; Data; Development; Diagnosis; Disease; Electrophysiology (science); Etiology; Frequencies; Goals; Hearing; Human; Individual; Investigation; Knowledge; Laboratories; Language; Lead; Left; Mammals; Mission; Modification; Molecular; Mus; Muscimol; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; Neocortex; Neurodevelopmental Disorder; Pattern; Process; Public Health; Research; Sensory; Strategic Planning; Structure; System; Testing; Time; Work; auditory processing; autism spectrum disorder; base; brain shape; burden of illness; critical period; experience; innovation; insight; molecular marker; neuromechanism; novel; preference; relating to nervous system; reproductive; social; social communication; sound; tool; vocalization

Project Summary Although the organization of the neocortex includes many consistent patterns of connections between cells, individual cortical areas also contain unique circuit-motifs that enable them to perform specific functions. One such specialization is left-hemisphere language dominance, which is well known in humans. Mice and other mammals also use vocalizations for social and reproductive interactions and show hemispheric asymmetry in processing these vocalizations. This similarity suggests there may be shared mechanisms for vocal processing that can be studied using the powerful circuit analysis tools available in animal models. This proposal focuses on the mouse auditory cortex, which preferentially responds to particular sound combinations across frequencies and time, in a context-dependent fashion, and thus encodes important components of species-specific vocalizations. Our work has revealed connectivity differences between the left and right auditory cortices that are hearing-experience dependent, but it is unknown how these differences arise. The long-term goal of this laboratory is to identify specialized circuit features in the auditory cortex that underlie the ability to encode information that is important for social communication and how they go awry in neurodevelopmental communication disorders. The overall objective of this proposal is to identify hemispheric differences in the timing of critical periods, and emergence of the behavioral relevance of lateralized processing. This proposal will test the working hypothesis that hemispheric specializations in auditory processing arise from differences in the maturation rate between the left and right auditory cortices. Maturational differences will be identified through hemispheric comparison of molecular markers related to the onset and closure of critical periods, and circuit- motif development using electrophysiology. We will also identify differences in the emergence of lateralized function with behavioral assays. Preliminary data in this proposal demonstrate significant differences in the maturation rate between the left and right auditory cortices. This approach is innovative because it is the first study to dissect hemispheric differences at the circuitry and functional level in the auditory cortex, and test a novel hypothesis of its origin. The research proposed here is significant because it is expected to reveal fundamental insights into the development of specializations in auditory cortical function, which will provide powerful tools to study how the auditory cortex encodes communication sounds and how this encoding goes awry in neurodevelopmental disorders.

项目总结