Thus auditory cortical circuits contribute to the normal operation of this sensorimotor behavior. Auditory cortex plays a critical role in reflex modification for gaps <32–64 ms in duration (Ison et al., 1991 Kelly et al., 1996 Bowen et al., 2003 Threlkeld et al., 2008 Masini et al., 2012 Weible et al., 2014b, 2020). Here, we focus on gap detection, a common variant of pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, in which a silent gap inserted into continuous background noise acts as a cue that attenuates the startle reflex. Building on more than a century of research into cortical physiology and connectivity (Grünbaum and Sherrington, 1902 Campbell, 1905 Ramon y Cajal, 1911), recent advances in the ability to manipulate and record from identified cell types have provided new insights into the computations performed by cortical circuits (for review, see Adesnik and Naka, 2018). How cortical circuits contribute to sensory perception and behavioral output remains a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. Our data provide the first demonstration that direct activation of auditory cortical neurons is sufficient to attenuate the acoustic startle response, similar to the detection of a sound. Photosuppression of these cells did not affect behavioral gap detection. Photoactivation of these cells evoked short-latency, highly reliable spiking in downstream layer 5 neurons, and attenuated startle responses similarly to gaps in noise.
Auditory cortex ap psychology driver#
We used the Nr5a-Cre driver line, which we found drove expression in the auditory cortex restricted predominantly to layer 3. We measured sound detection using a common variant of pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, in which a silent gap in background noise acts as a cue that attenuates startle. Here we tested the role of a circuit between layers 3 and 5 of auditory cortex in sound detection. While connectivity within sensory cortical circuits has been studied extensively, how these connections contribute to perception and behavior is not well understood.
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