Stimulus-timing-dependent plasticity in the auditory cortex. (360G-Wellcome-075557_Z_04_A)

Stimulus-timing-dependent plasticity in ferret auditory cortex Adult cortical circuits possess considerable plasticity, which can be induced by modifying their inputs. In the visual system, repetitive pairing of stimuli of different orientations or at different spatial locations leads to changes in the receptive field properties of cortical neurons and in human perception, the nature of which depends on the temporal order and interval between the pairs of stimuli. The aim of this project is to determine whether stimulus-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is also present in auditory cortex. We will investigate whether the sensitivity of ferret cortical neurons to the location or pitch of a stimulus can be altered by asynchronous auditory conditioning, and whether the degree of plasticity varies from one cortical area to another and therefore with the role of neurons in processing the stimulus attribute in question. Another aim is to study the effects of pairing visual and auditory stimuli on the properties of auditory and multi-sensory neurons in this region of cortex, in order to determine whether STDP extends across different sensory modalities. Finally, we will use a similar paradigm to examine the role of multi-sensory experience in mediating training-induced plasticity of auditory localisation in adult ferrets.