title: Stimulus-timing dependent multisensory plasticity in the guinea pig dorsal cochlear nucleus.
abstract: Multisensory neurons in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) show long-lasting enhancement or suppression of sound-evoked responses when stimulated with combined somatosensory-auditory stimulation. By varying the intervals between sound and somatosensory stimuli we show for the first time in vivo that DCN bimodal responses are influenced by stimulus-timing dependent plasticity. The timing rules and time courses of the observed stimulus-timing dependent plasticity closely mimic those of spike-timing dependent plasticity that have been demonstrated in vitro at parallel-fiber synapses onto DCN principal cells. Furthermore, the degree of inhibition in a neuron influences whether that neuron has Hebbian or anti-Hebbian timing rules. As demonstrated in other cerebellar-like circuits, anti-Hebbian timing rules reflect adaptive filtering, which in the DCN would result in suppression of sound-evoked responses that are predicted by activation of somatosensory inputs, leading to the suppression of body-generated signals such as self-vocalization.
authors.affiliation: Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Seth D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Koehler
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Shore
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017626:Cochlear Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors