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Sparse Representation of Sounds in the Unanesthetized Auditory Cortex

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  • Tomáš Hromádka
  • Michael R DeWeese
  • Anthony M Zador

Abstract

How do neuronal populations in the auditory cortex represent acoustic stimuli? Although sound-evoked neural responses in the anesthetized auditory cortex are mainly transient, recent experiments in the unanesthetized preparation have emphasized subpopulations with other response properties. To quantify the relative contributions of these different subpopulations in the awake preparation, we have estimated the representation of sounds across the neuronal population using a representative ensemble of stimuli. We used cell-attached recording with a glass electrode, a method for which single-unit isolation does not depend on neuronal activity, to quantify the fraction of neurons engaged by acoustic stimuli (tones, frequency modulated sweeps, white-noise bursts, and natural stimuli) in the primary auditory cortex of awake head-fixed rats. We find that the population response is sparse, with stimuli typically eliciting high firing rates (>20 spikes/second) in less than 5% of neurons at any instant. Some neurons had very low spontaneous firing rates (

Suggested Citation

  • Tomáš Hromádka & Michael R DeWeese & Anthony M Zador, 2008. "Sparse Representation of Sounds in the Unanesthetized Auditory Cortex," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pbio00:0060016
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060016
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Michael Wehr & Anthony M. Zador, 2003. "Balanced inhibition underlies tuning and sharpens spike timing in auditory cortex," Nature, Nature, vol. 426(6965), pages 442-446, November.
    2. Michael Brecht & Miriam Schneider & Bert Sakmann & Troy W. Margrie, 2004. "Whisker movements evoked by stimulation of single pyramidal cells in rat motor cortex," Nature, Nature, vol. 427(6976), pages 704-710, February.
    3. Xiaoqin Wang & Thomas Lu & Ross K. Snider & Li Liang, 2005. "Sustained firing in auditory cortex evoked by preferred stimuli," Nature, Nature, vol. 435(7040), pages 341-346, May.
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    1. Borges, F.S. & Protachevicz, P.R. & Pena, R.F.O. & Lameu, E.L. & Higa, G.S.V. & Kihara, A.H. & Matias, F.S. & Antonopoulos, C.G. & de Pasquale, R. & Roque, A.C. & Iarosz, K.C. & Ji, P. & Batista, A.M., 2020. "Self-sustained activity of low firing rate in balanced networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 537(C).
    2. Cheng Ly & Brent Doiron, 2009. "Divisive Gain Modulation with Dynamic Stimuli in Integrate-and-Fire Neurons," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(4), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Oren Amsalem & Hidehiko Inagaki & Jianing Yu & Karel Svoboda & Ran Darshan, 2024. "Sub-threshold neuronal activity and the dynamical regime of cerebral cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Gonzalo H Otazu & Christian Leibold, 2011. "A Corticothalamic Circuit Model for Sound Identification in Complex Scenes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(9), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Jean-Pierre Rospars & Alexandre Grémiaux & David Jarriault & Antoine Chaffiol & Christelle Monsempes & Nina Deisig & Sylvia Anton & Philippe Lucas & Dominique Martinez, 2014. "Heterogeneity and Convergence of Olfactory First-Order Neurons Account for the High Speed and Sensitivity of Second-Order Neurons," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Yifan Gu & Yang Qi & Pulin Gong, 2019. "Rich-club connectivity, diverse population coupling, and dynamical activity patterns emerging from local cortical circuits," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-34, April.
    7. Ryan C Williamson & Benjamin R Cowley & Ashok Litwin-Kumar & Brent Doiron & Adam Kohn & Matthew A Smith & Byron M Yu, 2016. "Scaling Properties of Dimensionality Reduction for Neural Populations and Network Models," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-27, December.
    8. Corentin Massot & Adam D Schneider & Maurice J Chacron & Kathleen E Cullen, 2012. "The Vestibular System Implements a Linear–Nonlinear Transformation In Order to Encode Self-Motion," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    9. Michael A Carlin & Mounya Elhilali, 2013. "Sustained Firing of Model Central Auditory Neurons Yields a Discriminative Spectro-temporal Representation for Natural Sounds," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-18, March.

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