Basal forebrain stimulation changes cortical sensitivities to complex sound

Eduardo Mercado, Shaowen Bao, Itzel Orduña, Mark A. Gluck, Michael M. Merzenich

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

Experience affects how brains respond to sound. Here, we examined how the sensitivity and selectivity of auditory cortical neuronal responses were affected in adult rats by the repeated presentation of a complex sound that was paired with basal forebrain stimulation. The auditory cortical region that was responsive to complex sound was 2-5 five times greater in area in paired-stimulation rats than in naive rats. Magnitudes of neuronal responses evoked by complex sounds were also greatly increased by associative pairing, as were the percentages of neurons that responded selectively to the specific spectrotemporal features that were paired with stimulation. These findings demonstrate that feature selectivity within the auditory cortex can be flexibly altered in adult mammals through appropriate intensive training.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2283-2287
Number of pages5
JournalNeuroReport
Volume12
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 20 2001
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cortical reorganization
  • Plasticity
  • Receptive field
  • Tuning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuroscience(all)

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