Task reward structure shapes rapid receptive field plasticity in auditory cortex.

ABSTRACT: As sensory stimuli and behavioral demands change, the attentive brain quickly identifies task-relevant stimuli and associates them with appropriate motor responses. The effects of attention on sensory processing vary across task paradigms, suggesting that the brain may use multiple strategies and mechanisms to highlight attended stimuli and link them to motor action. To better understand factors that contribute to these variable effects, we studied sensory representations in primary auditory cortex (A1) during two instrumental tasks that shared the same auditory discrimination but required different behavioral responses, either approach or avoidance. In the approach task, ferrets were rewarded for licking a spout when they heard a target tone amid a sequence of reference noise sounds. In t

SUBMITTER: David SV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3277538 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature