Formation and representation of motor-auditory associations in mouse auditory cortex (360G-Wellcome-109063_Z_15_A)

Studies of sensorimotor integration have long focused on "hard-wired" actions such as eye movements and vocalizations, but have only recently been extended to more complex learned behaviours such as locomotion and navigation - and so far only in the visual domain. Nevertheless, in order for an animal to successfully navigate through an acoustic environment containing dynamic sound sources at different locations, it is critical that sensory predictions coming from its own locomotion are compared with actual sensory feedback. To investigate this type of sensorimotor learning, I plan to build a close-loop spatial hearing set-up for head-fixed behaving mice, and to train mice to navigate in a virtual ‘sound maze’ using spatially localized sound sources. I then propose to track the population dynamics of neurons in auditory cortex, as the animal learns to create motor-auditory associations, using two-photon laser scanning microscopy in transgenic mouse-lines. In doing so, I will search for neurons encoding mismatch between expected and actual auditory feedback, characterizing their spatial distribution and response properties. Finally, I aim to investigate the neural circuitry underlying motor-auditory integration by imaging axonal projections from motor cortex and thalamus towards excitatory and inhibitory neuronal subpopulations in auditory cortex.