Document text
Principal Investigator: Yale E Cohen
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $326,946
Funding agency: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Although there is a rich history relating single-neuron spiking activity to brain function, our understanding
of the neural bases of perception and behavior depends on identifying information processing within neuronal
circuits that operate over different spatial scales. Despite their importance as a canonical model of information
flow, our understanding of whether and how such bidirectional hierarchically organized circuits contribute to
auditory perception remains elusive, especially in primate models of hearing. The overarching goal of this Roi
proposal is to fill this knowledge gap by identifying bidirectional, hierarchically organized circuits that contribute
to auditory perception. We will use predictive coding (PC) -a highly influential theoretical framework for
auditory statistical learning and perceptual inference- as an experimental lever to test whether its predictions
are instantiated in cortical circuits of the ventral auditory pathway. We focus on the ventral pathway because, in
rhesus monkeys, this pathway contributes causally to auditory perception. To test the circuit predictions of PC,
we insert multi-contact electrode(s) orthogonally to the cortical laminae and record single-unit and neuronalpopulation
activity in the core auditory cortex and in the ventral auditory pathway While recording, rhesus
monkeys participate in passive listening paradigms and an active listening task. During passive listening,
monkeys listen to sequences of auditory stimuli containing both predictable and unpredictable events, which
allow probes of prediction-error and prediction-related activity. During active listening, monkeys implicitly learn
to use auditory cues to predict the onset of an auditory target; this task is a direct behavioral assessment of the
strength and temporal dynamics of auditory statistical learning. In Specific Aim #1, we identify the interlaminar
circuitry underlying PC and its hierarchical organization along the ventral auditory pathway. In Specific Aim #2,
we identify the feedforward and feedback circuitry between the prefrontal and auditory cortices that underlies
PC. The findings from this proposal will provide invaluable insights into the functional organization of cortical
circuits underlying PC and statistical learning along the ventral auditory pathway. In turn, these insights may
lead to the formulation of testable hypotheses regarding the neurophysiological underpinnings of deficits in
statistical learning that have been identified in clinical conditions such as autism and schizophrenia.
Terms: <AD/HD><ADHD><ASD><Active Listening><Anterolateral><Area><Attention><Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder><Auditory><Auditory Cortex><Auditory Perception><Auditory area><Autism><Autistic Disorder><Behavior><Behavior assessment><Behavioral><Brain><Brain Nervous System><Cell Body><Cells><Clinical><Code><Coding System><Column of Bertini><Complex><Cortical Column><Coupled><Cues><Detection><Early Infantile Autism><Electrodes><Encephalon><Event><Feedback><Formulation><Frequencies><Goals><Hearing><History><Individual><Infantile Autism><Influentials><Kanner's Syndrome><Knowledge><Language Development><Learning><M mulatta><M. mulatta><Macaca mulatta><Modeling><Monkeys><Nerve Cells><Nerve Unit><Neural Cell><Neurocyte><Neurons><Pathway interactions><Perception><Phase><Population><Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type Attention-Deficit Disorder><Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type Hyperactivity Disorder><Prefrontal Cortex><Primates><Primates Mammals><Process><Recording of previous events><Renal Column of Bertini><Research><Rhesus Macaque><Rhesus Monkey><Schizophrenia><Schizophrenic Disorders><Sensory><Speech><Stimulus><Testing><acquiring language skills><auditory pathway><auditory stimulus><autism spectral disorder><autism spectrum disorder><autistic spectrum disorder><base><bases><behavioral assessment><dementia praecox><excitatory neuron><expectation><hearing perception><histories><improved><indexing><information model><information processing><inhibitory neuron><insight><language acquisition><language learning><neural><neuronal><neuronal circuit><neuronal circuitry><neurophysiological><neurophysiology><non-human primate><nonhuman primate><pathway><predictive signature><response><schizophrenic><sound perception><statistical learning><ventral pathway><ventral processing stream><ventral stream><ventral visual pathway><ventral visual processing stream><ventral visual stream>