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Sanes, D. H.

Publications and source records attributed to Sanes, D. H..

2 recordsLinked to original sources
bioRxiv2021

Auditory processing remains sensitive to environmental experience during adolescence

Development is a time of great opportunity. A heightened period of neural plasticity contributes to dramatic improvements in perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills. However, developmental plasticity poses a risk: greater malleability of neural circuits exposes them to environmental factors that may impede behavioral maturation. While these risks are well-established prior to sexual maturity (i.e., critical periods), the degree of neural vulnerability during adolescence remains uncertain. To address this question, we induced a transient period of hearing loss (HL) spanning adolescence in the gerbil, confirmed by assessment of circulating sex hormones, and asked whether behavioral and neural deficits are diminished. Wireless recordings were obtained from auditory cortex neurons during perceptual task performance, and within-session behavioral and neural sensitivity were compared. We found that a transient period of adolescent HL caused a significant perceptual deficit (i.e., amplitude modulation detection thresholds) that could be attributed to degraded auditory cortex processing, as confirmed with both single neuron and population-level analyses. In contrast, perceptual deficits did not occur when HL of the same duration was induced in adulthood. To determine whether degraded auditory cortex encoding was attributable to an intrinsic change, we obtained auditory cortex brain slices from adolescent HL animals, and recorded synaptic and discharge properties from auditory cortex pyramidal neurons. There was a clear and novel phenotype, distinct from critical period HL: excitatory postsynaptic potential amplitudes were elevated in adolescent HL animals, whereas inhibitory postsynaptic potentials were unchanged. This is in contrast to critical period deprivation, where there are large changes to synaptic inhibition. Taken together, these results show that diminished adolescent sensory experience can cause long-lasting behavioral deficits that originate, in part, from a dysfunctional cortical circuit. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=84 SRC="FIGDIR/small/439537v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (18K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@50b787org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1410662org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a0fa6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@897b1c_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG Summary of experimental design and main findings. C_FIG

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2021

Dopaminergic signaling supports auditory social learning

Explicit rewards are commonly used to reinforce a behavior, a form of learning that engages the dopaminergic neuromodulatory system. In contrast, skill acquisition can display dramatic improvements from a social learning experience, even though the observer receives no explicit reward. Here, we test whether a dopaminergic signal contributes to social learning in naive gerbils that are exposed to, and learn from, a skilled demonstrator performing an auditory discrimination task. Following five exposure sessions, naive observer gerbils were allowed to practice the auditory task, and their performance was assessed across days. We first tested the effect of an explicit food reward in the observers compartment that was yoked to the demonstrators performance during exposure sessions. Naive observer gerbils with the yoked reward learned the discrimination task significantly faster, as compared to unrewarded observers. The effect of this explicit reward was abolished by administration of a D1/D5 dopamine receptor antagonist during the exposure sessions. Similarly, the D1/D5 antagonist reduced the rate of learning in unrewarded observers. To test whether a dopaminergic signal was sufficient to enhance social learning, we administered a D1/D5 receptor agonist during the exposure sessions in which no reward was present, and found that the rate of learning occurred significantly faster. Finally, a quantitative analysis of observer vocalizations and movements during the exposure sessions suggest behavioral strategies that contribute to social learning. Together, these results are consistent with a dopamine-dependent reward signal during social learning.

neuroscience↗