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. 2022 Feb 10;16:799787. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.799787

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Copyright © 2022 Auerbach and Gritton.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Attentional and task-dependent modulation of sound feature encoding. (Ai,ii) Spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) in auditory cortical neurons change based on task engagement and target frequency. (Ai) Example STRF showing enhanced sensitivity (orange) and sideband inhibition (purple) during passive presentation of broadband temporally orthogonal ripple combinations (TORC) stimuli (left). Performance of a tone detection task with peak STRFs near the target frequency (arrow) enhances the excitatory region in the STRF during behavior (middle). When tonal targets were presented with frequencies that coincided with inhibitory STRF, (arrow) the STRF showed local decreases or elimination of inhibitory sidebands (right). (Aii) Summarized data showing that STRF plasticity adaptation effects are most substantial when near the target frequency with facilitation occurring over ∼1 octave from the target stimulus. Schematized data adapted from Fritz et al. (2003). (Bi,ii) Spatial sensitivity modulated by task performance. (Bi) Heat maps demonstrating primary auditory cortex (A1) neural activity as a function of time (horizontal axis) and stimulus location (vertical axis) from a single behavioral session. This neuron shows burst activity at sound onset and is strongly responsive to probe trials originating from all locations during idle conditions (non-task performing condition). During the sound localization task where the cat is rewarded for discriminating changes in elevation, neural responses become more selective for probe trial origin, responding best to stimuli located between contralateral 10° and 50°. Arrow indicates increased specificity for this unit at the spatial localization. Colors indicate changes in mean intensity firing rates for the two conditions. (Bii) Rate functions in response to sound onset are shown to the right for the passive and sound location task conditions as a function of stimulus location. Schematized data adapted from Lee and Middlebrooks (2011). (Ci,ii,iii) Effects of task performance on auditory responsivity in auditory and frontal cortices. (Ci) Average behavior-dependent change in reference (green) and target (purple) responses in A1. Reference targets included TORC or narrowband white noise stimuli while targets consisted of pure tones. Dashed lines represent pre-task passive responses while solid lines represent task-engaged response. The average reference and target response as measured by normalized peri-stimulus time histograms (PSTH) amplitude were not significantly different between passive and behavior conditions. (Cii) Target and reference comparison for dorsal posterior ectosylvian gyrus (dPEG) of the ferret which is a belt region receiving A1 input. dPEG shows an average target response augmentation during task performing conditions. (Ciii) Target and reference PSTH comparison for dorsal lateral frontal cortex (dlFC), an executive region important for cue-directed behavior. dlFC neurons show almost no responsivity during passive conditions for either target or reference stimuli; however, they are strongly regulated by the target exclusively during behavior. Schematized data adapted from Atiani et al. (2014).