Project Details
Projekt
Causative mechanisms of mesoscopic activity patterns in auditory category discrimination
Subject Area
Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Term
from 2013 to 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 238707842
The formation of categories is a fundamental element of cognition. However, its neuronal mechanisms remain largely unknown. While most previous work on category discrimination has focused on higher cortical areas, recent work points to important roles already of sensory brain areas. We have established a robust model of auditory category discrimination learning in the Mongolian gerbil, using frequency modulated (FM)-sweeps and a go/no-go shuttlebox paradigm. We have used this model to investigate (1) behavioral characteristics of auditory category learning, (2) to localize such function to the auditory cortex, and (3) to investigate neurochemical and proteomic consequences of learning. Particularly relevant for this proposal, we have shown that (4) mesoscopic spatial patterns of neural population activity as measured by surface ECoG arrays can accurately predict the animals' behavioral/cognitive decision. In this proposal, we explore the causative mechanisms leading to such mesoscopic neural activity patterns and their behavioral outcome. In the new funding period we will focus on the causal mechanisms that are differentially recruited during learning from previous correct and incorrect decisions. We continue to demonstrate causality by independently establishing the necessary and sufficient physiological preconditions for the categorization behaviour. This will be achieved by a combination of behavioral, electrophysiological and optogenetic techniques that we have developed during the first funding period. By combining our findings from mesoscopic activity with newly developed spike-based analysis, we further hope to illuminate the relationship of behaviourally relevant neuronal signatures on the mesoscopic levels and the microscopic levels of single-unit assemblies The uniqueness of our contribution to the SPP 1665 lies in direct causal investigation at the mesoscopic and microscopic level of cortical activity, in the context of a rich cognitive/behavioral task. In order to achieve new insights at this mesoscopic level, we employ advanced tools (WP1), a robust experimental model of auditory category discrimination and advanced computational analysis (WP2+3). We thereby take full advantage of the troika collaborative concept of the SPP 1665, by integrating activities of a toolmaker, an experimenter and an analyst.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 1665:
Resolving and Manipulating Neuronal Networks in the Mammalian Brain - From Correlative to Causal Analysis
Co-Investigator
Dr. Michael Lippert
