Modification of Electric Activity in Cochlear Nucleus during "Attention" in Unanesthetized Cats

Hernández-Peón, R.; Scherrer, H; Jouvet, M

doi:10.1126/science.123.3191.331

Cited by 472 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Calibration and maintained control of sensory stimuli are the bedrock of sensory neurophysiology, and are no less important when determining the role of sensory systems in cognition. For example, an early study reported that attention in the cat to a non-auditory stimulus (a mouse in a jar) reduced the response of the auditory system to sounds 131 . However, 'attention' was accompanied by the cat moving away from the speaker, explaining the reduced amplitude by an effective decrease in stimulus intensity at the ear.…”

Section: Box 2 Melding Sensory Physiology and Learning/memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific long-term memory traces in primary auditory cortex

2004

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Learning and memory involve the storage of specific sensory experiences. However, until recently the idea that the primary sensory cortices could store specific memory traces had received little attention. Converging evidence obtained using techniques from sensory physiology and the neurobiology of learning and memory supports the idea that the primary auditory cortex acquires and retains specific memory traces about the behavioural significance of selected sounds. The cholinergic system of the nucleus basalis, when properly engaged, is sufficient to induce both specific memory traces and specific behavioural memory. A contemporary view of the primary auditory cortex should incorporate its mnemonic and other cognitive functions.Identifying the neural substrates of learning and memory is a core problem in neuroscience. As memories involve the representation of past sensory events, they may be stored, in part, within sensory systems. Sensory systems have traditionally been viewed as 'stimulus analysers', with learning and memory assigned to 'higher' cortical regions. Nonetheless, neurophysiological studies have produced evidence for learning-induced plasticity in sensory cortices, and in particular the auditory cortex. Galambos and colleagues first implicated the primary auditory cortex (A1) in learning in 1956, observing that pairing an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) with a weak shock (a mildly aversive unconditioned stimulus (US)) produced a significant increase in the amplitude of CS-elicited evoked field potentials in A1 of the cat 1 . Subsequently, these findings were extended to other tasks (such as discrimination), types of learning (including instrumental conditioning), motivations (for example, food) and types of recording (such as single and multiple unit discharges) 2 .Although such results established associative plasticity in A1, neither they nor similar findings in other sensory cortices addressed the key issue of specificity of information storage. As memories have specific content, how could changes in the magnitude of sensory cortical responses adequately reflect the encoding of specific aspects of experiences? A solution was provided by the field of sensory neurophysiology, which focuses on stimulus specificity. Sensory physiology experiments use a wide range of stimulus values to NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript determine how specific sensory stimuli are processed and coded. In fact, the basic paradigms of sensory physiology and learning are complementary (Box 1).This article presents an overview of research that combines experimental designs from sensory physiology with those of learning and memory to search for specific memory traces in A1. A sign of a specific memory trace would be learning-induced physiological plasticity that has the key characteristics of behavioural memory and sufficient specificity to encode a canonical attribute of experience, such as a physical feature and its behavioural importance. Previous reviews have covered ot...

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Section: Box 2 Melding Sensory Physiology and Learning/memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific long-term memory traces in primary auditory cortex

2004

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“…This Wnding is consistent with the classical psychologists' view of attention, so clearly articulated by William James over a century ago (James, This view is generally supported by many studies measuring brain activity under diVerent attentional conditions and using diVerent recording techniques in diVerent experimental preparations. Studies in animal preparations, starting with (possibly the earliest) observation that "attention" can increase "electric activity" in cochlear nucleus of awake cats (Hernandez-Peon et al, 1956), and continuing with single unit recording methods in auditory cortex of primates (Miller et al, 1972;Hocherman et al, 1976); and studies in human subjects using both EEG (Picton et al, 1971), or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Johnson and Zatorre, 2005), have generally supported the limited resource model, with the Wnding that directing attentional resources toward a brain region results in an increase in neural activity.…”

Section: A Brief and Idiosyncratic Review Of Auditory Attentional Modmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward the mechanisms of auditory attention

Hromádka

Zador

2007

Hearing Research

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Since the earliest studies of auditory cortex, it has been clear that an animal's behavioral or attentional state can play a crucial role in shaping the response characteristics of single neurons. Much of what has been learned about attention has been made using human and animal models, but little is known about the cellular and synaptic mechanisms by which attentional modulation of neuronal responses occurs. The use of rodent experimental models allows us to exploit the full armamentarium of modern cellular and molecular neuroscience techniques. Here we present our program for studying auditory attention, speciWcally for development of rodent models of attention and Wnding the neural correlates of attention.

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“…For example, Hernandez-Péon et al (1956) showed that the auditory response in a cat's cochlear nucleus was attenuated when the cat was attending to a visual stimulus. More re-cently, the notion of focal visual attention has begun to play a more important role in behavioral neuroscience theorizing and some evidence has been obtained showing that the activity of early parts of the visual system can indeed be influenced by selective attention (e.g., Moran & Desimone 1985;Mountcastle et al 1987;Sillito et al 1994;Van Essen & Anderson 1990).…”

Section: The Perspective From Neurosciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pylyshyn reports that "Hernandez- Péon et al 1956, showed that the auditory response in a cat's cochlear nucleus was attenuated when the cat was attending to a visual stimulus" (sect. 3.2, para.…”

Section: An Even Stronger Case For the Cognitive Impenetrability Of Vmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ecological approach to cognitive (im)penetrability

Withagen¹,

Michaels²

1999

Behav Brain Sci

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We offer an ecological (Gibsonian) alternative to cognitive (im)penetrability. Whereas Pylyshyn explains cognitive (im)penetrability by focusing solely on computations carried out by the nervous system, according to the ecological approach the perceiver as a knowing agent influences the entire animal-environmental system: in the determination of what constitutes the environment (affordances), what constitutes information, what information is detected and, thus, what is perceived.

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Modification of Electric Activity in Cochlear Nucleus during "Attention" in Unanesthetized Cats

Cited by 472 publications

References 3 publications

Specific long-term memory traces in primary auditory cortex

Specific long-term memory traces in primary auditory cortex

Toward the mechanisms of auditory attention

An ecological approach to cognitive (im)penetrability

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