Kontext-abhängige auditorische Informationsverarbeitung im Hörkortex
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
The project investigated how acoustic context shapes sensory processing in the auditory cortex, using the bat as a model system. Over the course of the project, this work resulted in two high-impact publications and provided important advances in our understanding of context-dependent neural coding. The first study showed that neuronal responses to natural sounds are strongly influenced by preceding acoustic context (https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0873-21.2021). Notably, neurons that appear unselective when sounds are presented in isolation can become highly selective when embedded within natural sound sequences, and vice versa. These findings challenge traditional approaches that rely on simplified stimuli and suggest that auditory processing in natural environments is fundamentally context-dependent. A computational model further demonstrated that these effects can be explained by converging thalamocortical inputs with distinct frequency tuning and adaptation dynamics. The second study extended this work by examining how anesthesia alters contextual processing (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002013). By combining in vivo recordings with computational modelling, the study revealed that anesthetics such as ketamine exert asymmetric, frequency-specific effects on cortical inputs. These findings show that neural responses under anesthesia cannot be directly extrapolated to awake conditions and provide a mechanistic framework for interpreting differences between the two states. In addition, the grant also allowed us to gather preliminary data on how endogenous cortical oscillations shape auditory responses. These data suggest that the phase of ongoing low-frequency activity systematically modulates response strength, pointing to internal brain state as an additional source of contextual modulation. Overall, the project establishes that sensory representations in the auditory cortex are not fixed, but instead dynamically shaped by both recent sensory history and brain state, with broad implications for how neural coding is studied across systems.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
-
Acoustic Context Modulates Natural Sound Discrimination in Auditory Cortex through Frequency-Specific Adaptation. The Journal of Neuroscience, 41(50), 10261-10277.
López-Jury, Luciana; García-Rosales, Francisco; González-Palomares, Eugenia; Kössl, Manfred & Hechavarria, Julio C.
-
A neuron model with unbalanced synaptic weights explains the asymmetric effects of anaesthesia on the auditory cortex. PLOS Biology, 21(2), e3002013.
López-Jury, Luciana; García-Rosales, Francisco; González-Palomares, Eugenia; Wetekam, Johannes; Pasek, Michael & Hechavarria, Julio C.
