A Circuit Neuroscience Seminar (CNS)

With practice, each of us can refine our perceptual skills. We can learn to see object features more clearly, hear the difference between sounds more easily, and discern flavors and smells with greater acuity. In the auditory system, this process – termed perceptual learning – shapes the acquisition of both native and non-native languages, and can improve speech and music recognition in individuals with hearing aids and cochlear implants. The importance of perceptual learning for improving auditory skills in hearing impaired listeners, and the disruption of perceptual learning in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, like dyslexia and autism, highlight an urgent need for a more complete description of how perceptual learning is implemented in the brain. Our work addresses this issue by measuring and manipulating cortical activity in behaving animals as they train and improve on sound detection tasks. The results presented in this talk will (1) demonstrate that improvements in auditory cortical sensitivity could plausibly explain perceptual learning, and (2) highlight the contribution of the orbitofrontal cortex, a prefrontal cortical region implicated in signaling reward and expectation, and in exerting top-down control of sensory cortical processing, to auditory cortical plasticity and perceptual learning. This line of research may ultimately inform the development of drugs or interventions that optimize the use of assisted listening devices in the hearing impaired. Our results may also one day lead to novel biotechnologies that enhance learning, allowing for faster and more effective acquisition of
musical skills and non-native languages in normal-hearing listeners.

Join via Zoom: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/99272260172