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Abstract

Grant Number:	5F31DC005285-03
Project Title:	Spectrotemporal Plasticity in Rat Auditory Cortex

PI Information:	Name	Email	Title
	PANDYA, PRITESH K.	pritesh@utdallas.edu

Abstract: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Compelling evidence exists that the adult brain can be modified by sensory experiences. Understanding experience-dependent plasticity has implications for clinical remediation strategies in neurological and auditory disorders. In this proposal, I will use a well-established and powerful plasticity paradigm to study how sensory experience alters receptive field size, maximum following rate, and fidelity of cortical representations, from neurons in the primary auditory cortex. To accomplish these objectives, I will pair tones, rapidly modulated trains of noise bursts, and complex speech stimuli with activation of the cholinergic nucleus basalis, located in the basal forebrain, and examine how sensory input guides cortical plasticity. After sensory experience with each of these three classes of stimuli, I will then collect dense cortical maps and determine how these sounds contribute to different forms of plasticity in each group. The experiments in this proposal will extend our knowledge of basic principles of auditory cortical plasticity to include complex spatiotemporal stimuli. It is my hypothesis that differential sensory experience will shape cortical representations in a systematic and quantifiable manner.

Public Health Relevance:
This Public Health Relevance is not available.

Thesaurus Terms:
auditory cortex, neural plasticity
brain mapping, experience, prosencephalon, sensory feedback, sound, speech
auditory stimulus, laboratory rat, predoctoral investigator

Institution:	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DALLAS
	800 West Campbell, MP15
	RICHARDSON, TX 750801407
Fiscal Year:	2003
Department:	NEUROSCIENCE
Project Start:	01-AUG-2002
Project End:
ICD:	NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS
IRG:	CDRC

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