Integrative Analysis of Adaptive Information Processing and Learning-Dependent Circuit Reorganization in the Auditory System

Abstract Decades of research have revealed the principles of information processing that give rise to auditory spatial tuning and experience-dependent adaptive plasticity in the owl auditory system. This is a strong foundation on which to build a multiscale understanding of circuit function from synapse to behavior. Towards these goals, this project will investigate: (a) the rules of synaptic integration of binaural cues and sound frequency using a newly developed patch-clamp preparation in combination with volume electron microscopy to reconstruct the connectivity motifs underlying these computations; (b) population decoding schemes using multielectrode arrays to further test our field-leading model that orienting to auditory targets is implemented by readout of an entire neural population, approximating statistical inference, and (c) the microanatomical and population-level mechanisms of behavioral learning using two complementary plasticity paradigms, prism adaptation and ruff cutting. Achievement of these goals, implemented by a multiple-PI group with a complementary expertise set, will establish for the first time links between synaptic and cellular network architecture underlying single neuron computation, population responses and experience-dependent coding of statistically adaptive and experience-dependent sound localization behavior. At each level, the questions pursued in this integrative project are framed in terms of common mechanisms and hypotheses expected to be shared broadly across circuits and species.