Resources
Authors & Affiliations
Valerija Kello, Diana Amaro, Michael H. Myoga, Benedikt Grothe
Abstract
The ability to localize sounds is a major evolutionary adaptation that plays an essential role in the survival of many species. As the auditory system does not directly encode spatial information in its sensory epithelium, the brain has a complex task of reconstructing the auditory spatial world. Whereas early research in anesthetized animals has revealed that neurons in the auditory cortex (AC) increase their firing in response to sounds from the contralateral auditory hemifield, there is increasing evidence in awake animals that some neurons are tuned to sounds coming from the midline of the animal. However, it is unclear whether the AC neurons change their preferred location during learning of a task involving behaviorally relevant sound azimuths. To answer this question, we trained head-fixed mice to localize sounds emitted from distinct horizontal positions and to report those coming from a predefined location to obtain a reward. Using two-photon calcium imaging, we monitored the activity of hundreds of neurons in the auditory cortex throughout the learning process. Our findings suggest that the spatial tuning of AC neurons is remarkably plastic, as indicated by changes in spatial coding that occur between the training sessions. Moreover, as the animals learn the task, more neurons become tuned to the rewarded location compared to earlier sessions when the performance was worse. In summary, our findings indicate that attributing relevance to a specific azimuth changes the spatial tuning of the AC neurons.