Social learning enhances auditory cortex sensitivity and task acquisition

社交学习增强听觉皮层的敏感性和任务获取

• 批准号: 10420532
• 负责人: Dan Harvey Sanes
• 金额: $ 62万
• 依托单位: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-10 至 2027-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10420532
• 关键词: Abbreviations; Acoustics; Adolescent; Animals; Auditory; Auditory area; Behavior; Behavioral; Bilateral; Cannulas; Child; Cognitive; Communication; Conductive hearing loss; Cues; Development; Discrimination; Dopamine; Dopamine Receptor; Earplug; Electrodes; Excision; Exposure to; Fiber; Gerbils; Goals; Impairment; Infusion procedures; Language Development; Learning; Malleus; Measures; Mediating; Muscimol; Neurons; Perception; Perceptual learning; Pharmacology; Photometry; Placebos; Population; Research; Rewards; Role; Saline; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Speech; Stimulus; Testing; Training; Visual; base; design; experience; hearing impairment; improved; innovation; instrument; language processing; neuroregulation; novel strategies; relating to nervous system; response; sensor; skill acquisition; skills; social; social factors; social learning; sound; speech processing; vocalization; wireless; Abbreviations; Acoustics; Adolescent; Animals; Auditory; Auditory area; Behavior; Behavioral; Bilateral; Cannulas; Child; Cognitive; Communication; Conductive hearing loss; Cues; Development; Discrimination; Dopamine; Dopamine Receptor; Earplug; Electrodes; Excision; Exposure to; Fiber; Gerbils; Goals; Impairment; Infusion procedures; Language Development; Learning; Malleus; Measures; Mediating; Muscimol; Neurons; Perception; Perceptual learning; Pharmacology; Photometry; Placebos; Population; Research; Rewards; Role; Saline; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Speech; Stimulus; Testing; Training; Visual; base; design; experience; hearing impairment; improved; innovation; instrument; language processing; neuroregulation; novel strategies; relating to nervous system; response; sensor; skill acquisition; skills; social; social factors; social learning; sound; speech processing; vocalization; wireless

PROJECT SUMMARY Skill acquisition can be facilitated by social experience, usually through exposure to a conspecific performing a well-defined behavior. In fact, social learning (SL) is pivotal to the acquisition of many core behaviors, including aural communication. Although the neural bases for auditory SL remain uncertain, one plausible hypothesis is that social experience may induce experience-dependent plasticity in auditory cortex (AC), as found for many forms of learning, thereby facilitating auditory task acquisition. Social learning may also have implications for developmental hearing loss (HL), a prevalent sensory impairment that is associated with persistent deficits in speech and language acquisition, especially since social factors are thought to facilitate language acquisition in children with HL. Three Aims test predictions that emerge from this hypothesis: Aim 1 first demonstrates the positive impact of SL on task learning: Naïve Observer gerbils receive five days of exposure to a trained Demonstrator performing an amplitude modulation rate discrimination task. An opaque divider separates Observer and Demonstrator, such that visual cues are absent. Observer gerbils are then permitted to practice the auditory task, and the rate of learning assessed. To test the prediction that AC activity is required, AC will be inactivated during social experience. Aim 1 will go on to test the prediction that dopaminergic neuromodulation within AC is be necessary for social learning. We will first determine whether dopamine is released in AC during social experience, using fiber photometry and a genetically expressed dopamine sensor. We will then block dopamine receptors in AC during social exposure to determine whether the benefits of social experience are diminished. Aim 2 tests the prediction that AC neuron sensitivity to auditory cues will be enhanced during SL. Gerbils will be instrumented with electrode arrays in AC, and recorded during five days of social exposure. Single neuron and population responses to auditory task stimuli will be assessed to determine if improved neural sensitivity during observation can explain the rate of task acquisition rate during practice. To test the contribution of an auditory social cue (i.e., Demonstrator vocalizations), recordings will be obtained from Observers exposed to auditory task cues plus playback of demonstrator vocalizations. Aim 3 tests the prediction that SL will improve task acquisition in hearing loss-reared animals. Juvenile gerbils will receive either permanent (malleus removal) or transient (earplugs) conductive HL. Animals will then be instrumented with electrode arrays in AC, and assessed as in Aim 2. Innovations in this proposal are to: (i) extend current auditory learning paradigms to include social cues, (ii) use wireless recordings during learning to make within- animal comparisons of neural and behavioral sensitivity, and (iii) shift the current emphasis in HL research from a focus on degraded sensory processing to one that considers how social factors may facilitate auditory skills. If successful, the project will identify a CNS mechanism that mediates socially-enhanced auditory learning, and provide a novel approach to remediate sensory and cognitive barriers in children with HL.

项目摘要 技能获取可以通过社交经验来准备，通常是通过暴露于特定表现的 定义明确的行为。实际上，社会学习（SL）对于获取许多核心行为至关重要，包括 听觉通信。尽管听觉s的神经基础仍然不确定，但一个合理的假设是 这种社交经验可能会影响听觉皮层（AC）中依赖经验的可塑性 学习形式，从而支持听觉任务获取。社会学习也可能对 发展听力损失（HL），这是一种与持续缺陷有关的普遍感觉障碍 语音和语言获取，特别是因为人们认为社会因素有助于促进语言获取 HL的孩子。从这个假设中得出的三个目标测试预测：目标1首先证明了 SL对任务学习的积极影响：天真的观察者的沙鼠会接受五天的接触 执行放大器调制率歧视任务的演示器。不透明的分隔线分开 观察者和演示者，因此不存在视觉提示。然后允许观察者的沙鼠练习 听觉任务和学习率评估了。为了测试需要AC活动的预测，AC将 在社交经验中被灭活。 AIM 1将继续测试多巴胺能的预测 AC内的神经调节对于社会学习是必要的。我们将首先确定多巴胺是否是 使用纤维光度法和遗传表达的多巴胺传感器在社交经验期间以交流发行。 然后，我们将在社交暴露期间阻止AC中的多巴胺受体，以确定是否有效 社交经验减少了。 AIM 2测试AC神经元对听觉提示的敏感性的预测将是 在SL期间增强。沙鼠将用AC中的电极阵列进行仪器，并在五天内记录 社会曝光。将评估单个神经元和人群对听觉任务刺激的反应以确定 如果观察过程中的神经灵敏度提高可以解释练习过程中任务采集率的速度。到 测试听觉社会提示的贡献（即演示者的发声），将获得记录 从暴露于听觉任务提示的观察者以及演示者发声的播放。 AIM 3测试 预测SL将改善听力损失的动物的任务获取。少年沙鼠会收到 永久性（麦尔勒斯去除）或瞬态（耳塞）导电HL。然后将动物仪器 用AC中的电极阵列，并像AIM 2一样进行评估。此提案中的创新是：（i）扩展电流 听觉学习范例包括社交线索，（ii）在学习过程中使用无线记录以使其内部 动物对神经和行为敏感性的比较，以及（iii）转移HL研究的当前重点 从关注降解感官处理到考虑社会因素如何促进听觉的一种处理 技能。如果成功，该项目将确定介导社会增强听觉的CNS机制 学习，并提供一种新颖的方法来补救HL儿童的感觉和认知障碍。