Auditory Competition and Stimulus Selection across Spatial Locations from Midbrain to Forebrain in Barn Owls.

Autor:	Bae AJ; Dominick P Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461 andrea.bae@einsteinmed.edu., Fischer BJ; Department of Mathematics, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington 98122., Peña JL; Dominick P Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience [J Neurosci] 2024 Dec 11; Vol. 44 (50). Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 11.
DOI:	10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1298-24.2024
Abstrakt:	Barn owls enable investigation of neural mechanisms underlying stimulus selection of concurrent stimuli. The audiovisual space map in the optic tectum (OT), avian homolog of the superior colliculus, encodes relative strength of concurrent auditory stimuli through spike response rate and interneuronal spike train synchrony (STS). Open questions remain regarding stimulus selection in downstream forebrain regions lacking topographic coding of auditory space, including the functional consequences of interneuronal STS on interregional signaling. To this end, we presented concurrent stimuli at different locations and manipulated relative strength while simultaneously recording neural responses from OT and its downstream thalamic target, nucleus rotundus (nRt), in awake barn owls of both sexes. Results demonstrated that broadly spatially tuned nRt units exhibit different spike response patterns to competition depending on spatial tuning preferences. Modeling suggests nRt units integrate convergent inputs from distant locations across midbrain map regions. Additionally, STS within nRt reflects the temporal properties of the strongest stimulus. Furthermore, interregional STS between OT and nRt was strongest when spatial tuning overlap between units across regions was large and when the strongest stimulus location during competition was favorable for units in both regions. Additionally, though gamma oscillations synthesized within OT are weakly propagated within nRt, average gamma power across regions correlates with strength of interregional STS. Overall, we demonstrate that nRt integrates inputs across distant areas of OT, retains spatial information through differences in strength of inputs from various locations of the midbrain map across neurons, and prioritizes coding of identity features to the strongest sound. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests. (Copyright © 2024 the authors.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:	Zobrazit plný text záznamu