title: Pairing Cholinergic Enhancement with Perceptual Training Promotes Recovery of Age-Related Changes in Rat Primary Auditory Cortex.
abstract: We used the rat primary auditory cortex (A1) as a model to probe the effects of cholinergic enhancement on perceptual learning and auditory processing mechanisms in both young and old animals. Rats learned to perform a two-tone frequency discrimination task over the course of two weeks, combined with either the administration of a cholinesterase inhibitor or saline. We found that while both age groups learned the task more quickly through cholinergic enhancement, the young did so by improving target detection, whereas the old did so by inhibiting erroneous responses to nontarget stimuli. We also found that cholinergic enhancement led to marked functional and structural changes within A1 in both young and old rats. Importantly, we found that several functional changes observed in the old rats, particularly those relating to the processing and inhibition of nontargets, produced cortical processing features that resembled those of young untrained rats more so than those of older adult rats. Overall, these findings demonstrate that combining auditory training with neuromodulation of the cholinergic system can restore many of the auditory cortical functional deficits observed as a result of normal aging and add to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that many age-related perceptual and neuroplastic changes are reversible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4.
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Voss
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4.
authors.forename: Maryse
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4.
authors.forename: You Chien
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4.
authors.forename: José Miguel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cisneros-Franco
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4.
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ouellet
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Villers-Sidani
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D000068836:Rivastigmine / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D000068836:Rivastigmine