title: Cortical map plasticity improves learning but is not necessary for improved performance.
abstract: Cortical map plasticity is believed to be a key substrate of perceptual and skill learning. In the current study, we quantified changes in perceptual ability after pairing tones with stimulation of the cholinergic nucleus basalis to induce auditory cortex map plasticity outside of a behavioral context. Our results provide evidence that cortical map plasticity can enhance perceptual learning. However, auditory cortex map plasticity fades over weeks even though tone discrimination performance remains stable. This observation is consistent with recent reports that cortical map expansions associated with perceptual and motor learning are followed by a period of map renormalization without a decrement in performance. Our results indicate that cortical map plasticity enhances perceptual learning, but is not necessary to maintain improved discriminative ability.
authors.affiliation: School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, GR41, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080-3021, USA. apuckett@utdallas.edu
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carraway
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.forename: Vikram
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jakkamsetti
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Kilgard
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats