Distinct contributions of converging neural pathways to auditory learning

项目摘要/摘要 对感觉刺激的有效解释依赖于辨别刺激特征的能力 并根据过去的经验将它们与适当的行为反应联系起来。剩下的很多 然而，关于不同的神经通路在代表和学习中所起的作用尚不清楚 这些关联，特别是信息如何在不同的 行为的学习和执行过程中的路径。作为实现以下长期目标的一步 了解神经系统如何灵活地将感觉刺激与动作联系起来，这项研究将集中于 研究多条听觉通路对目标的贡献的听觉决策 纹状体是基底神经节的主要输入阶段，也是调节运动的关键结构 行为。具体地说，该项目将专注于听觉丘脑的信息流 以及从听觉皮质到纹状体后部尾部的初级和非初级区域。 中心假说是通向纹状体的各种听觉皮质和丘脑通路 在学习和执行合理驱动的决策过程中扮演不同的角色。这项工作将包括 发展多条听觉通路中声音表征和学习的理论模型 会聚在纹状体上，以及在经过训练的小鼠身上进行声学实验 辨别任务，以测试和改进这些模型。这些实验将利用 对特定神经通路的可逆操作的新技术，同时监测 在行为过程中同时存在的神经元数量。该项目的组织目标有三个。第一 目的是确定听觉皮质-纹状体和丘脑-纹状体通路发挥作用的条件 在声音-动作联想任务的执行中扮演不同的角色。第二个目标是确定 听觉皮质通路与丘脑通路在学习这些任务中的作用。第三 目的是识别由不同的听觉皮层区域传递的自然声音的声学特征 纹状体。总而言之，这些研究将揭示汇聚神经所扮演的计算角色。 习得和执行习得行为的途径。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Effective interpretation of sensory stimuli relies on the ability to discriminate stimulus features and link them to appropriate behavioral responses depending on past experience. Much remains unknown, however, about the roles that different neural pathways play in representing and learning these associations, and in particular, how information is distributed and combined among different pathways during learning and execution of behavior. As a step toward addressing the long-term goal of understanding how the nervous system flexibly links sensory stimuli to actions, this research will focus on auditory decision making to study the contributions of the multiple auditory pathways that target the striatum, the main input stage of the basal ganglia and a key structure in the regulation of motor behavior. Specifically, the project will focus on the flow of information from the auditory thalamus as well as primary and non-primary areas of the auditory cortex to the posterior tail of the striatum. The central hypothesis is that the various auditory cortical and thalamic pathways to the striatum all play distinct roles during learning and execution of sound-driven decisions. This work will consist of developing theoretical models of sound representation and learning in the multiple auditory pathways converging on the striatum, as well as carrying out experiments in mice trained to perform acoustic discrimination tasks in order to test and refine these models. These experiments will take advantage of novel techniques for reversible manipulation of specific neural pathways while monitoring large numbers of neurons simultaneously during behavior. The project is organized in three aims. The first aim is to determine the conditions in which auditory cortico-striatal and thalamo-striatal pathways play distinct roles during performance of sound-action association tasks. The second aim is to determine the roles of auditory cortical vs. thalamic pathways to the striatum during learning of these tasks. The third aim is to identify the acoustic features of natural sounds conveyed by distinct auditory cortical fields to the striatum. Together, these studies will reveal the computational roles played by converging neural pathways in acquiring and executing learned behaviors.