title: Input-Specific Gain Modulation by Local Sensory Context Shapes Cortical and Thalamic Responses to Complex Sounds.
abstract: Sensory neurons are customarily characterized by one or more linearly weighted receptive fields describing sensitivity in sensory space and time. We show that in auditory cortical and thalamic neurons, the weight of each receptive field element depends on the pattern of sound falling within a local neighborhood surrounding it in time and frequency. Accounting for this change in effective receptive field with spectrotemporal context improves predictions of both cortical and thalamic responses to stationary complex sounds. Although context dependence varies among neurons and across brain areas, there are strong shared qualitative characteristics. In a spectrotemporally rich soundscape, sound elements modulate neuronal responsiveness more effectively when they coincide with sounds at other frequencies, and less effectively when they are preceded by sounds at similar frequencies. This local-context-driven lability in the representation of complex sounds-a modulation of "input-specific gain" rather than "output gain"-may be a widespread motif in sensory processing.
authors.affiliation: Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London W1T 4JG, UK; Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Ross S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Williamson
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK.
authors.forename: Misha B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ahrens
authors.affiliation: Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, UK; Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Electronic address: j.linden@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jennifer F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Linden
authors.affiliation: Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London W1T 4JG, UK. Electronic address: maneesh@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Maneesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sahani
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology