Dataset Information

Silencing cortical activity during sound-localization training impairs auditory perceptual learning.

ABSTRACT: The brain has a remarkable capacity to adapt to changes in sensory inputs and to learn from experience. However, the neural circuits responsible for this flexible processing remain poorly understood. Using optogenetic silencing of ArchT-expressing neurons in adult ferrets, we show that within-trial activity in primary auditory cortex (A1) is required for training-dependent recovery in sound-localization accuracy following monaural deprivation. Because localization accuracy under normal-hearing conditions was unaffected, this highlights a specific role for cortical activity in learning. A1-dependent plasticity appears to leave a memory trace that can be retrieved, facilitating adaptation during a second period of monaural deprivation. However, in ferrets in which learning was initially disrupted by perturbing A1 activity, subsequent optogenetic suppression during training no longer affected localization accuracy when one ear was occluded. After the initial learning phase, the reweighting of spatial cues that primarily underpins this plasticity may therefore occur in A1 target neurons.

SUBMITTER: Bajo VM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6625986 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Silencing cortical activity during sound-localization training impairs auditory perceptual learning.

Bajo Victoria M VM Nodal Fernando R FR Korn Clio C Constantinescu Alexandra O AO Mann Edward O EO Boyden Edward S ES King Andrew J AJ

Nature communications 20190712 1

The brain has a remarkable capacity to adapt to changes in sensory inputs and to learn from experience. However, the neural circuits responsible for this flexible processing remain poorly understood. Using optogenetic silencing of ArchT-expressing neurons in adult ferrets, we show that within-trial activity in primary auditory cortex (A1) is required for training-dependent recovery in sound-localization accuracy following monaural deprivation. Because localization accuracy under normal-hearing c ...[more]

PMID: 31300665

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Project description:Learning is considered to consist of two distinct phases-acquisition and consolidation. Acquisition can be disrupted when short periods of training on more than one task are interleaved, whereas consolidation can be disrupted when a second task is trained after the first has been initiated. Here we investigated the conditions governing the disruption to acquisition and consolidation during mixed-training regimens in which primary and secondary amplitude modulation tasks were either interleaved or presented consecutively. The secondary task differed from the primary task in either task-irrelevant (carrier frequency) or task-relevant (modulation rate) stimulus features while requiring the same perceptual judgment (amplitude modulation depth discrimination), or shared both irrelevant and relevant features but required a different judgment (amplitude modulation rate discrimination). Based on previous literature we predicted that acquisition would be disrupted by varying the task-relevant stimulus feature during training (stimulus interference), and that consolidation would be disrupted by varying the perceptual judgment required (task interference). We found that varying the task-relevant or -irrelevant stimulus features failed to disrupt acquisition but did disrupt consolidation, whereas mixing two tasks requiring a different perceptual judgment but sharing the same stimulus features disrupted both acquisition and consolidation. Thus, a distinction between acquisition and consolidation phases of perceptual learning cannot simply be attributed to (task-relevant) stimulus versus task interference. We propose instead that disruption occurs during acquisition when mixing two tasks requiring a perceptual judgment based on different cues, whereas consolidation is always disrupted regardless of whether different stimulus features or tasks are mixed. The current study not only provides a novel insight into the underlying mechanisms of perceptual learning, but also has practical implications for the optimal design and delivery of training programs that aim to remediate perceptual difficulties.

Dataset Information

Silencing cortical activity during sound-localization training impairs auditory perceptual learning.

Publications

Silencing cortical activity during sound-localization training impairs auditory perceptual learning.

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