Perceptual gap detection is mediated by gap termination responses in auditory cortex.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding speech in the presence of background noise often becomes increasingly difficult with age. These age-related speech processing deficits reflect impairments in temporal acuity. Gap detection is a model for temporal acuity in speech processing in which a gap inserted in white noise acts as a cue that attenuates subsequent startle responses. Lesion studies have shown that auditory cortex is necessary for the detection of brief gaps, and auditory cortical neurons respond to the end of the gap with a characteristic burst of spikes called the gap termination response (GTR). However, it remains unknown whether and how the GTR plays a causal role in gap detection. We tested this by optogenetically suppressing the activity of somatostatin- or parvalbumin-expressing i

SUBMITTER: Weible AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4131718 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature