Dynamic processing of sound in auditory cortex

项目总结： 对言语和语言的感知需要听觉皮质的正常功能 (ACX)。ACX如何做到这一点至关重要地取决于 神经元：横跨大脑皮层和其多层结构。初级听觉 大脑皮质(A1)在声音感知中起着关键作用，因为它代表着最早的皮层之一 加工站。最近的研究结果表明，A1神经元的神经活动不依赖于 仅限于听觉刺激本身，但受声音的历史、内部状态、 以及动物的行为背景。例如，单个A1神经元的选择性可以 当动物从事行为任务时，或当动物参与行为任务时，快速和适应性地重塑 听力条件变得更具挑战性。然而，与行为相关的信息是 在神经元群体中编码，但到目前为止还不清楚行为是如何影响 塑造A1神经种群的活动，以及由此产生的种群活动之间的关系 向绩效提出任务。在这里，我们确定声音如何在不同的小区中动态编码 行为过程中的种群及其内部和内部细胞相互作用的变化性质 跨A1层。 通过在行为小鼠体内使用双光子成像，我们将确定功能 已确定的大量A1神经元对复杂刺激的反应，这些神经元是如何 相互作用，重建存在于A1的功能网络，并分享外部影响 这些A1网络。然后，我们调查A1网络如何更改其响应和 不同任务难度的听觉行为中的功能交互作用。因此，我们确定 网络如何变化取决于任务的标识和难度。加在一起，这些 实验将揭示A1网络如何根据 动物的行为需求。我们之前的工作确定了额叶皮质的一个区域，即 眼眶额叶皮质(OFC)，作为A1的输入来源，可以改变A1的感受野。我们 从而调查OFC投射在听觉行为中是如何进行的，以及如果 操纵OFC对A1的预测将改变行为表现。 我们的工作有助于对正常听力能力的机械性理解 听者在复杂或嘈杂的声学环境中导航，并在 不同的声源。因此，我们的工作有助于理解不同的条件 如耳鸣、衰老、诵读困难、中枢听觉处理障碍(CAPD)等。

Project Summary: The perception of speech and language requires normal functioning of the auditory cortex (ACX). How ACX does this critically depends on the coordinated activity of populations of neurons: both across the cortex and throughout its multi-layered structure. The primary auditory cortex (A1) plays a key role for sound perception since it represents one of the first cortical processing stations. Recent results have shown that neural activity of A1 neurons depend not only on auditory stimuli themselves, but are influenced by the history of sounds, internal state, and behavioral context of the animal. For example, the selectivity of individual A1 neurons can rapidly and adaptively be reshaped when an animal is engaged in a behavioral task, or when listening conditions become more challenging. However, behaviorally relevant information is encoded in populations of neurons but to date it is not understood how behavioral influences shape the activity across A1 neural populations, and how the resulting population activity relates to task performance. Here we determine how sounds are dynamically encoded in diverse cell populations during behavior and the changing nature of their cellular interactions within and across A1 layers. By using in vivo 2-photon imaging in behaving mice we will determine the functional responses to complex stimuli in identified large populations of A1 neurons, how these neurons interact, reconstruct the functional networks present with A1, and shared external influences on these A1 networks. We then investigate how A1 networks change their responses and functional interactions during auditory behaviors of varying task difficulty. Thus, we determine how network changes depend on the identify and the difficulty of a task. Together, these experiments will reveal how A1 networks are dynamically reconfigured depending on the behavioral needs of the animal. Our prior work identified a region of the frontal cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), as a source of inputs to A1 that can change A1 receptive fields. We thus investigate how OFC projections are engaged during auditory behaviors and if manipulating OFC projections to A1 will alter behavioral performance. Our work contributes to the mechanistic understanding of the ability of normal-hearing listeners to navigate complex or noisy acoustic environments and shift their attention between different sound sources. Thus, our work contributes to the understanding of diverse conditions such as tinnitus, aging, dyslexia, central auditory processing disorder (CAPD).