title: Contrast Enhancement without Transient Map Expansion for Species-Specific Vocalizations in Core Auditory Cortex during Learning.
abstract: Tonotopic map plasticity in the adult auditory cortex (AC) is a well established and oft-cited measure of auditory associative learning in classical conditioning paradigms. However, its necessity as an enduring memory trace has been debated, especially given a recent finding that the areal expansion of core AC tuned to a newly relevant frequency range may arise only transiently to support auditory learning. This has been reinforced by an ethological paradigm showing that map expansion is not observed for ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) or for ultrasound frequencies in postweaning dams for whom USVs emitted by pups acquire behavioral relevance. However, whether transient expansion occurs during maternal experience is not known, and could help to reveal the generality of cortical map expansion as a correlate for auditory learning. We thus mapped the auditory cortices of maternal mice at postnatal time points surrounding the peak in pup USV emission, but found no evidence of frequency map expansion for the behaviorally relevant high ultrasound range in AC. Instead, regions tuned to low frequencies outside of the ultrasound range show progressively greater suppression of activity in response to the playback of ultrasounds or pup USVs for maternally experienced animals assessed at their pups' postnatal day 9 (P9) to P10, or postweaning. This provides new evidence for a lateral-band suppression mechanism elicited by behaviorally meaningful USVs, likely enhancing their population-level signal-to-noise ratio. These results demonstrate that tonotopic map enlargement has limits as a construct for conceptualizing how experience leaves neural memory traces within sensory cortex in the context of ethological auditory learning.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322; Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322.
authors.forename: Kathryn N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Shepard
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322; Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332.
authors.forename: Kelly K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322; Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 30322.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2450-8194
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D014465:Ultrasonics; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: auditory learning; lateral inhibition; map plasticity; maternal behavior; tonotopic map; ultrasonic vocalization 