Neural circuitry for sound-guided auditory plasticity: tonotopic cortico-subcortical loop combined with cholinergic inputs

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Learning and experience continuously shape the brain (referred to as plasticity). This is a learning process that is an essential brain function for our everyday life. It is believed that auditory learning or experience induces significant changes of neuronal function in the central auditory system. This change is called auditory plasticity that is guided by acquired sounds (sound-guided auditory plasticity). This suggests that the brain can adapt to changes in acoustic environment: but how? The proposed study will examine how the built-in neural wiring in the brain underlies the sound-guided auditory plasticity. We specifically focus on the reciprocal projections between the cortex and subcortical nuclei and the cholinergic projections to the auditory system. Auditory plasticity will be assessed by the changes in the receptive fields of auditory neurons with an electrophysiological approach. We expect that the reciprocal projections (between the auditory cortex and subcortical nuclei) combined with its cholinergic inputs constitutes an integrative functional unit responsible for inducing and coordinating sound-guided auditory plasticity. Results from the proposed study, together with our previous findings, will elucidate a comprehensive neural circuit responsible for sound-guided auditory plasticity. This established circuitry will significantly improve our understanding of the neural basis of learning.