Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Social communication calls are fleeting, rapidly modulating signals and the ability of the auditory system to perceive such transient signals is a remarkable phenomenon. The mechanism by which the auditory cortex (ACx) is believed to be capable of processing these signals is through recurrent connectivity in the cortical circuits. Recurrent connectivity is proposed to be a possible circuit motif that aids in the processing of these transient signals. Recurrent connectivity is believed to have an effect on the temporal fidelity, the ability to follow a modulating signal, and the recurrent activity, sustained activity following stimulus offset, at the level of individual neurons and at the level of the circuits. Preliminary evidence from this lab has shown differences in recurrent connectivity of the left and right ACx in the mouse. Specifically, the right ACx was seen to have greater recurrent connectivity than the left. Our study will use electrophysiological single-cell recordings from awake mice to observe whether lateralized differences exist in recurrent activity and temporal fidelity which may sub-serve the functional differences between the hemispheres.
Author: Demetrios Neophytou
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3126279730