Transformation of temporal sequences in the zebra finch auditory system

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Abstract

This study examines how temporally patterned stimuli are transformed as they propagate from primary to secondary zones in the thalamo-recipient auditory pallium in zebra finches. Using a new class of synthetic click stimuli, we find a robust mapping from temporal sequences in the primary zone to distinct population vectors in secondary auditory areas. We tested whether songbirds could discriminate synthetic click sequences in an operant setup and found that a robust behavioral discrimination is present for click sequences composed of intervals ranging from 11-40ms, but breaks down for stimuli composed of longer inter-click intervals. This work suggests that the analog of the songbird auditory cortex transforms temporal patterns to sequence-selective population responses or 'spatial codes,' and that these distinct population responses contribute to behavioral discrimination of temporally complex sounds.

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Yoonseob Lim

Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University, Boston, United States

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Ryan Lagoy

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, United States

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Barbara G Shinn-Cunningham

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, United States

Competing interests
Barbara G Shinn-Cunningham, Reviewing editor, eLife.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5096-5914
Timothy J Gardner

Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, United States

For correspondence
timothyg@bu.edu

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1744-3970

Funding

National Science Foundation (NSF OMA-0835976)

Barbara G Shinn-Cunningham
Timothy J Gardner

National Institutes of Health (NIH R01NS089679)

Timothy J Gardner

National Research Council of Science and Technology grant by Korea Government (CRC-15-04-KIST)

Yoonseob Lim

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (Protocol Number: 11-027) of the Boston University, operating under AALAC registration 000197, OLAW assurance A3316-01 and USDA 14-R-0017. All surgery was performed under isoflurane anesthesia, and every effort was made to minimize suffering.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.