Decoding sound level in the marmoset primary auditory cortex

Sun, Wensheng; Marongelli, Ellisha N.; Watkins, Paul V.; Barbour, Dennis L.

doi:10.1152/jn.00670.2016

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The differential effects of aging in ON versus OFF periods we find here suggest that different inhibitory mechanisms may contribute to normal production of ON and OFF responses in young monkeys. The relative proportions of neurons with monotonic versus nonmonotonic rate-level functions in auditory cortex impact the accuracy with which the population can perform level-invariant decoding of sounds (Sun et al 2017). Thus the significant increase in the proportion of monotonic neurons in A1 and CL may contribute to impaired auditory perceptual discriminability in aged monkeys.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related changes in sound onset and offset intensity coding in auditory cortical fields A1 and CL of rhesus macaques

Ramamurthy

Recanzone

2020

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Inhibition plays a key role in shaping sensory processing in the central auditory system and has been implicated in sculpting receptive field properties such as sound intensity coding and also in shaping temporal patterns of neuronal firing such as onset- or offset-evoked responses. There is substantial evidence supporting a decrease in inhibition throughout the ascending auditory pathway in geriatric animals. We therefore examined intensity coding of onset (ON) and offset (OFF) responses in auditory cortex of aged and young monkeys. A large proportion of cells in the primary auditory cortex (A1) and the caudolateral field (CL) displayed nonmonotonic rate-level functions for OFF responses in addition to nonmonotonic coding of ON responses. Aging differentially affected ON and OFF responses; the magnitude of effects was generally greater for ON responses. In addition to higher firing rates, neurons in old monkeys exhibited a significant increase in the proportion of monotonic rate-level functions and had higher best intensities than those in young monkeys. OFF responses in young monkeys displayed a range of intensity coding relationships with ON responses of the same cells, ranging from highly similar to highly dissimilar. Dissimilarity in ON/OFF coding was greater in CL and was reduced with aging, which was largely explained by a preferential decrease in the percentage of cells with nonmonotonic coding of ON and OFF responses. The changes we observed are consistent with previously demonstrated alterations in inhibition in the ascending auditory pathway of primates and could be involved in age-related deficits in the temporal processing of sounds. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Aging has a major impact on intensity coding of neurons in auditory cortex of rhesus macaques. Neural responses to sound onset and offset were affected to different extents, and their rate-level functions became more mutually similar, which could be accounted for by the loss of nonmonotonic intensity coding in geriatric monkeys. These findings were consistent with weakened inhibition in the central auditory system and could contribute to auditory processing deficits in elderly subjects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related changes in sound onset and offset intensity coding in auditory cortical fields A1 and CL of rhesus macaques

Ramamurthy

Recanzone

2020

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…Although not the focus of this study, the functional perspective of non-monotonic neurons in the ICC is also interesting. Recently, studies in the marmoset primary AC indicated that non-monotonic neurons may complement the function of monotonic neurons in different sound-encoding contexts (Sadagopan and Wang, 2008; Sun et al, 2017). In these views, the non-monotonic neurons in the IC may be beneficial to the concentration of non-monotonic neurons in the AC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust and Intensity-Dependent Synaptic Inhibition Underlies the Generation of Non-monotonic Neurons in the Mouse Inferior Colliculus

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2019

Front. Cell. Neurosci.

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Intensity and frequency are the two main properties of sound. The non-monotonic neurons in the auditory system are thought to represent sound intensity. The central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC), as an important information integration nucleus of the auditory system, is also involved in the processing of intensity encoding. Although previous researchers have hinted at the importance of inhibitory effects on the formation of non-monotonic neurons, the specific underlying synaptic mechanisms in the ICC are still unclear. Therefore, we applied the in vivo whole-cell voltage-clamp technique to record the excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs and IPSCs) in the ICC neurons, and compared the effects of excitation and inhibition on the membrane potential outputs. We found that non-monotonic neuron responses could not only be inherited from the lower nucleus but also be created in the ICC. By integrating with a relatively weak IPSC, approximately 35% of the monotonic excitatory inputs remained in the ICC. In the remaining cases, monotonic excitatory inputs were reshaped into non-monotonic outputs by the dominating inhibition at high intensity, which also enhanced the non-monotonic nature of the non-monotonic excitatory inputs.

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“…Units that are narrowly tuned to both frequency and amplitude are common in primary auditory cortex of marmosets and bats (Sadagopan and Wang 2008;Suga 1977). A population of Oshaped units could serve to encode a level-invariant representation of frequency, which could be useful for feature detection in amplitude-modulated vocal sounds (Sun et al 2017). In addition, the auditory cortex of echo-locating bats contains a disproportionate representation of level-tuned units corresponding to frequencies and amplitudes of echoes from emitted sound pulses (Suga 1990), suggesting that changes in amplitude spectra over time may themselves represent important information in vocal sounds.…”

Section: Tone Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response properties of single neurons in higher level auditory cortex of adult songbirds

Bottjer

Ronald

Kaye

2019

Journal of Neurophysiology

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The caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) is a higher level region of auditory cortex in songbirds that has been implicated in encoding learned vocalizations and mediating perception of complex sounds. We made cell-attached recordings in awake adult male zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata) to characterize responses of single NCM neurons to playback of tones and songs. Neurons fell into two broad classes: narrow fast-spiking cells and broad sparsely firing cells. Virtually all narrow-spiking cells responded to playback of pure tones, compared with approximately half of broad-spiking cells. In addition, narrow-spiking cells tended to have lower thresholds and faster, less variable spike onset latencies than did broad-spiking cells, as well as higher firing rates. Tonal responses of narrow-spiking cells also showed broader ranges for both frequency and amplitude compared with broad-spiking neurons and were more apt to have V-shaped tuning curves compared with broad-spiking neurons, which tended to have complex (discontinuous), columnar, or O-shaped frequency response areas. In response to playback of conspecific songs, narrow-spiking neurons showed high firing rates and low levels of selectivity whereas broad-spiking neurons responded sparsely and selectively. Broad-spiking neurons in which tones failed to evoke a response showed greater song selectivity compared with those with a clear tuning curve. These results are consistent with the idea that narrow-spiking neurons represent putative fast-spiking interneurons, which may provide a source of intrinsic inhibition that contributes to the more selective tuning in broad-spiking cells. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The response properties of neurons in higher level regions of auditory cortex in songbirds are of fundamental interest because processing in such regions is essential for vocal learning and plasticity and for auditory perception of complex sounds. Within a region of secondary auditory cortex, neurons with narrow spikes exhibited high firing rates to playback of both tones and multiple conspecific songs, whereas broad-spiking neurons responded sparsely and selectively to both tones and songs.

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Decoding sound level in the marmoset primary auditory cortex

Cited by 9 publications

References 73 publications

Age-related changes in sound onset and offset intensity coding in auditory cortical fields A1 and CL of rhesus macaques

Age-related changes in sound onset and offset intensity coding in auditory cortical fields A1 and CL of rhesus macaques

Robust and Intensity-Dependent Synaptic Inhibition Underlies the Generation of Non-monotonic Neurons in the Mouse Inferior Colliculus

Response properties of single neurons in higher level auditory cortex of adult songbirds

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