Adaptive coding and plasticity in the auditory system. (360G-Wellcome-076508_Z_05_B)

This research aims to improve our understanding of the neural basis for auditory perception by investigating how experience shapes the way in which information is represented in the mature brain. We plan to use electrophysiological recording and imaging techniques in ferrets to determine how the neural processing of sounds at higher levels of the auditory pathway adapts over different time scales, both according to the context in which those sounds occur and as a result of perceptual learning. W e shall explore the perceptual consequences of those changes by combining electrophysiological and behavioural measurements in the same animals. Psychophysical tests in humans will also be used to assess the generality of these findings and to guide subsequent animal studies. By employing methods for silencing specific neural pathways, we hope to identify the neural circuits responsible for the dynamic processing of auditory information, while recordings from cortical and subcortical areas will reveal how neural coding strategies change as a result of learning and experience. We shall focus primarily on the adaptive coding and plasticity of auditory spatial information, both under normal hearing conditions and after reversibly altering the localization cues available or following the re-introduction of auditory function by bilateral cochlear implantation.