Comodulation enhances signal detection via priming of auditory cortical circuits
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Sollini, J
Chadderton, P
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Acoustic environments are composed of complex overlapping sounds that the auditory system is required to segregate into discrete perceptual objects. The functions of distinct auditory processing stations in this challenging task are poorly understood. Here we show a direct role for mouse auditory cortex in detection and segregation of acoustic information. We measured the sensitivity of auditory cortical neurons to brief tones embedded in masking noise. By altering spectrotemporal characteristics of the masker, we reveal that sensitivity to pure tone stimuli is strongly enhanced in coherently modulated broadband noise, corresponding to the psychoacoustic phenomenon comodulation masking release. Improvements in detection were largest following priming periods of noise alone, indicating that cortical segregation is enhanced over time. Transient opsin-mediated silencing of auditory cortex during the priming period almost completely abolished these improvements, suggesting that cortical processing may play a direct and significant role in detection of quiet sounds in noisy environments.
Date Issued
2016-12-07
Date Acceptance
2016-08-29
Citation
Journal of Neuroscience, 2016, 36 (49), pp.12299-12311
ISSN
0270-6474
Publisher
Society for Neuroscience
Start Page
12299
End Page
12311
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Neuroscience
Volume
36
Issue
49
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Sollini and Chadderton
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any
medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any
medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Grant Number
G1000512
Subjects
broadband
coherence
masking release
noise
opsin
pyramidal cell
Neurology & Neurosurgery
11 Medical And Health Sciences
17 Psychology And Cognitive Sciences
Publication Status
Published