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| Open AccessEye movements track prioritized auditory features in selective attention to natural speech
Anatomical overlap of respective brain regions suggests a joint network for attention and eye movements. Here, the authors show that gaze aligns with the acoustics of attended natural speech and differentiates between a target and a distractor in a cocktail party scenario.
- Quirin Gehmacher
- , Juliane Schubert
- & Nathan Weisz
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Article
| Open AccessMultiple processes of vocal sensory-motor interaction in primate auditory cortex
The neural processes underlying vocal self-monitoring are unclear. Here, the authors show that vocal suppression of auditory cortex operates on two time-scales with different temporal and acoustic precision, suggesting distinct predictive modulations.
- Joji Tsunada
- , Xiaoqin Wang
- & Steven J. Eliades
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Article
| Open AccessAuditory cortex conveys non-topographic sound localization signals to visual cortex
Auditory cortex sends dense projections to layer 1 of mouse V1. Here the authors show these axons convey rich sound localization signals and that their auditory receptive fields do not align with the retinotopic map of V1.
- Camille Mazo
- , Margarida Baeta
- & Leopoldo Petreanu
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| Open AccessA phase I/IIa safety and efficacy trial of intratympanic gamma-secretase inhibitor as a regenerative drug treatment for sensorineural hearing loss
Pharmacological inhibition of gamma-secretase induced partial recovery of hearing in animal models. Here, the authors present the safety and efficacy results and key learnings of the First in Human Phase I/IIa study of a gamma-secretase inhibitor in patients with acquired Hearing Loss.
- Anne G. M. Schilder
- , Stephan Wolpert
- & Athanasios G. Bibas
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Article
| Open AccessThe Piezo channel is a mechano-sensitive complex component in the mammalian inner ear hair cell
The identity of hair cells’ mechanoelectrical transduction (MET) channel-complex components is unknown. Here, the authors used multiple biochemical, genetic, and functional approaches to show that mouse hair cells utilize Piezo1 and Piezo2 isoforms as part of the MET-complex component.
- Jeong Han Lee
- , Maria C. Perez-Flores
- & Ebenezer N. Yamoah
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| Open AccessHolistic bursting cells store long-term memory in auditory cortex
Previous work has identified cells in L2/3 of auditory cortex which strongly respond with bursting to a specific learned chord, but not to single component tones in an auditory task. Here the authors show that these cells correlate with the behavioral relevance of the learned composite sounds.
- Ruijie Li
- , Junjie Huang
- & Hongbo Jia
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Article
| Open AccessEmergence of the cortical encoding of phonetic features in the first year of life
To understand speech, our brains have to learn the different types of sounds that constitute words, including syllables, stress patterns and smaller sound elements, such as phonetic categories. Here, the authors provide evidence that at 7 months, the infant brain learns reliably to detect invariant phonetic categories.
- Giovanni M. Di Liberto
- , Adam Attaheri
- & Usha Goswami
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| Open AccessAltered corollary discharge signaling in the auditory cortex of a mouse model of schizophrenia predisposition
Schizophrenia patients are impaired in attenuating responses to self-generated sensory input. Here, the authors reveal the same sensory deficit and reduced corollary discharge signaling in mice carrying a major genetic risk factor for schizophrenia.
- Brian P. Rummell
- , Solmaz Bikas
- & Torfi Sigurdsson
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Article
| Open AccessChange detection in the primate auditory cortex through feedback of prediction error signals
The brain can quickly detect sounds that are not predicted. Here, the authors show that propagation of prediction error signals from higher-order auditory cortex to primary auditory cortex is critical for the change detection in the non-human primates.
- Keitaro Obara
- , Teppei Ebina
- & Masanori Matsuzaki
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| Open AccessNigrostriatal dopamine modulates the striatal-amygdala pathway in auditory fear conditioning
The striatum has been shown to be important for learning, but its exact role is unclear. Here, the authors show that the striatum’s connection with the amygdala and its dopamine-dependent plasticity is necessary for fear learning.
- Allen P. F. Chen
- , Lu Chen
- & Qiaojie Xiong
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Article
| Open AccessImmediate neural impact and incomplete compensation after semantic hub disconnection
The human brain is a distributed system composed of highly interconnected hubs. Here, patients undergoing a rare operation reveal the immediate impact and compensatory brain network changes that occur when a key hub is removed.
- Zsuzsanna Kocsis
- , Rick L. Jenison
- & Christopher I. Petkov
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| Open AccessSensory cortex plasticity supports auditory social learning
Social learning through observing conspecifics can facilitate the acquisition of behaviors. Here, the authors show in Mongolian gerbils that auditory cortex is necessary for social learning of an auditory discrimination task, and that social exposure improves neuronal coding of auditory task cues.
- Nihaad Paraouty
- , Justin D. Yao
- & Dan H. Sanes
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| Open AccessDynamics of cortical contrast adaptation predict perception of signals in noise
The auditory system adapts to properties of sounds reaching the ear, but it is unclear whether this affects the way sounds are perceived. Here, the authors found that auditory responses in the brain predict changes in the perception of sounds, suggesting that adaptation shapes the way we hear.
- Christopher F. Angeloni
- , Wiktor Młynarski
- & Maria N. Geffen
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| Open AccessHearing of malaria mosquitoes is modulated by a beta-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor which serves as insecticide target
Malaria mosquitoes use their ears to detect the flight tones of mating partners in the swarm as part of the courtship ritual. Here, the authors describe the auditory role of octopamine as a modulator of auditory plasticity in malaria mosquitoes and identify the main receptors involved in this process.
- Marcos Georgiades
- , Alexandros Alampounti
- & Marta Andrés
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| Open AccessPhonemic segmentation of narrative speech in human cerebral cortex
The neural dynamics underlying speech comprehension are not well understood. Here, the authors show that phonemic-to-lexical processing is localized to a large region of the temporal cortex, and that segmentation of the speech stream occurs mostly at the level of diphones.
- Xue L. Gong
- , Alexander G. Huth
- & Frédéric E. Theunissen
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Article
| Open AccessCell-type-specific plasticity of inhibitory interneurons in the rehabilitation of auditory cortex after peripheral damage
Peripheral sensory organ damage leads to compensatory cortical plasticity. Here, the authors show that after noise trauma, auditory cortical neurons display cell-type-specific plasticity in their sound-evoked and intrinsic properties.
- Manoj Kumar
- , Gregory Handy
- & Thanos Tzounopoulos
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Article
| Open AccessTRPA1 activation in non-sensory supporting cells contributes to regulation of cochlear sensitivity after acoustic trauma
The function of TRPA1 channels in the mammalian cochlea is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that TRPA1 channels in supporting cells of the organ of Corti mediate contractile responses that may contribute to temporary shifts in hearing thresholds after noise exposure in mice.
- A. Catalina Vélez-Ortega
- , Ruben Stepanyan
- & Gregory I. Frolenkov
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| Open AccessCochlear transcript diversity and its role in auditory functions implied by an otoferlin short isoform
The repertoire of mRNA isoforms in the cochlea remains unknown. Here, authors generated a full-length transcriptome atlas by ScISOr-seq, identified and studied Otof short isoform, extended our understanding of auditory function in isoform resolution.
- Huihui Liu
- , Hongchao Liu
- & Hao Wu
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| Open AccessMini-PCDH15 gene therapy rescues hearing in a mouse model of Usher syndrome type 1F
Mutations in PCDH15 cause deafness and blindness in Usher syndrome 1 F, but gene therapy is difficult because the PCDH15 sequence is too large for AAV vectors. Here, the authors engineered a miniPCDH15 that fits in AAV and rescues hearing in mouse Usher syndrome 1F models.
- Maryna V. Ivanchenko
- , Daniel M. Hathaway
- & David P. Corey
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| Open AccessTBX2 specifies and maintains inner hair and supporting cell fate in the Organ of Corti
Inner hair cells are essential for hearing but the molecular drivers of their differentiation have remained enigmatic. Here, the authors show that the transcription factor TBX2 has a key function in inducing and maintaining inner hair cell fate.
- Marina Kaiser
- , Timo H. Lüdtke
- & Mark-Oliver Trowe
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| Open AccessNeural dynamics of phoneme sequences reveal position-invariant code for content and order
Speech unfolds faster than the brain completes processing of speech sounds. Here, the authors show that brain activity moves systematically within neural populations of auditory cortex, allowing accurate representation of a speech sound’s identity and its position in the sound sequence.
- Laura Gwilliams
- , Jean-Remi King
- & David Poeppel
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Article
| Open AccessFunction of bidirectional sensitivity in the otolith organs established by transcription factor Emx2
The inner ear is highly organized, with distinct domains being located across the Line of Polarity Reversal (LPR). Here they show that Emx2 establishes the LPR and bidirectional selectivity of otolith organs, and that loss of the LPR in mice affects swimming and balance.
- Young Rae Ji
- , Yosuke Tona
- & Doris K. Wu
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| Open AccessCryo-EM structures of thermostabilized prestin provide mechanistic insights underlying outer hair cell electromotility
Outer hair cell electromotility, driven by prestin, is essential for mammalian cochlear amplification. Here, the authors report the cryo-EM structures of thermostabilized prestin in the presence of various anions, providing insight into the mechanisms of mammalian cochlear amplification.
- Haon Futamata
- , Masahiro Fukuda
- & Osamu Nureki
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Article
| Open AccessNigrostriatal dopamine pathway regulates auditory discrimination behavior
The auditory striatum, the tail portion of dorsal striatum, is implicated in decision-making. This study uncovers a phasic mechanism within the nigrostriatal system that regulates auditory decisions by modulating ongoing auditory perception.
- Allen P. F. Chen
- , Jeffrey M. Malgady
- & Qiaojie Xiong
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Article
| Open AccessSocially meaningful visual context either enhances or inhibits vocalisation processing in the macaque brain
Social interaction involves processing semantic and emotional information. Here the authors show that in the macaque monkey lateral and superior temporal sulcus, cortical activity is enhanced in response to species-specific vocalisations predicted by matching face or social visual stimuli but inhibited when vocalisations are incongruent with the predictive visual context.
- Mathilda Froesel
- , Maëva Gacoin
- & Suliann Ben Hamed
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Article
| Open AccessSingle-cell RNA-sequencing analysis of the developing mouse inner ear identifies molecular logic of auditory neuron diversification
This study chronicles dynamic gene expression in differentiating spiral ganglion neurons from murine embryonic day 14.5 to postnatal stage, establishes their lineage trajectories, and identifies molecular determinants of cell fate decision.
- Charles Petitpré
- , Louis Faure
- & Francois Lallemend
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| Open AccessEcholocation-related reversal of information flow in a cortical vocalization network
How cortical areas interact during vocalization is not fully understood. Here the authors show that when bats vocalize, the behavioral function of emitted sounds determines the direction of information flow between frontal and auditory cortices.
- Francisco García-Rosales
- , Luciana López-Jury
- & Julio C. Hechavarría
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Article
| Open AccessAuditory processing remains sensitive to environmental experience during adolescence in a rodent model
Anbuhl et al. identify adolescence as a time of vulnerability to sensory deprivation. They find that even a transient loss of auditory experience causes long-lasting perceptual deficits that originate, in part, from a cortical processing deficit.
- Kelsey L. Anbuhl
- , Justin D. Yao
- & Dan H. Sanes
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Article
| Open AccessTranslaminar recurrence from layer 5 suppresses superficial cortical layers
The role of translaminar feedback projections between layer 5 and layers 2/3 in sensory processing remains unclear. Here, the authors show that ascending projections from layer 5 suppress superficial layers, and that this translaminar feedback sharpens feature selectivity in the primary auditory cortex.
- Koun Onodera
- & Hiroyuki K. Kato
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Article
| Open AccessMesoscopic landscape of cortical functions revealed by through-skull wide-field optical imaging in marmoset monkeys
The authors developed an optical imaging approach for mapping cortical functions through the intact skull in marmoset monkeys. Detailed functions and topographies were revealed in visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices at mesoscopic scales.
- Xindong Song
- , Yueqi Guo
- & Xiaoqin Wang
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Article
| Open AccessFlexible auditory training, psychophysics, and enrichment of common marmosets with an automated, touchscreen-based system
The authors present a cage-based stand-alone platform for autonomous, standardized, and unsupervised training and testing of visuo-auditory-cued behaviours of common marmosets. The experiments do not require dietary restriction or social separation.
- A. Calapai
- , J. Cabrera-Moreno
- & M. Jeschke
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Article
| Open AccessBrain-wide projection reconstruction of single functionally defined neurons
Brain-wide axonal projections of single neurons have been extensively reconstructed without any functional characterization. The authors present a method that allows for developing a precise one-to-one map of both projection patterns and functional features of single neurons in mice.
- Meng Wang
- , Ke Liu
- & Xiaowei Chen
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Article
| Open AccessChoice of vector and surgical approach enables efficient cochlear gene transfer in nonhuman primate
Gene therapy using Adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) rescues hearing and balance deficits in mouse models of human disorders. Here, the authors show that AAVAnc80L65 allows efficient cochlear gene transfer in nonhuman primates, and motivate future studies to evaluate gene therapy for hearing and balance disorders.
- Eva Andres-Mateos
- , Lukas D. Landegger
- & Luk H. Vandenberghe
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Article
| Open AccessNeuronal activity in sensory cortex predicts the specificity of learning in mice
The neural mechanisms underpinning the specificity of fear memories remains poorly understood. Here, the authors highlight how neural activity prior to fear learning impacts fear memory specificity.
- Katherine C. Wood
- , Christopher F. Angeloni
- & Maria N. Geffen
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Article
| Open AccessSingle particle cryo-EM structure of the outer hair cell motor protein prestin
Prestin, expressed in outer hair cell (OHC), belongs to the Slc26 transporter family and functions as a voltage-driven motor that drives OHC electromotility. Here, the authors report cryo-EM structure and characterization of gerbil prestin, with insights into its mechanism of action.
- Carmen Butan
- , Qiang Song
- & Joseph Santos-Sacchi
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Article
| Open AccessDeep neural network models reveal interplay of peripheral coding and stimulus statistics in pitch perception
The neural and computational mechanisms underpinning pitch perception remain unclear. Here, the authors trained deep neural networks to estimate the fundamental frequency of sounds and found that human pitch perception depends on precise spike timing in the auditory nerve, but is also adapted to the statistical tendencies of natural sounds.
- Mark R. Saddler
- , Ray Gonzalez
- & Josh H. McDermott
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Article
| Open AccessInhibitory gating of coincidence-dependent sensory binding in secondary auditory cortex
Sound processing requires binding of frequency components into a unified perceptual object. Here the authors investigate the neural correlates in the mouse secondary auditory cortex underlying multifrequency binding in response to harmonic sounds.
- Amber M. Kline
- , Destinee A. Aponte
- & Hiroyuki K. Kato
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Article
| Open AccessSubcortical circuits mediate communication between primary sensory cortical areas in mice
In the primary auditory cortex, visual or tactile stimuli can modulate acoustically-driven activity. Here, the authors show that circuits linking the primary somatosensory cortex to both the auditory midbrain and thalamus allow tactile inputs to modulate auditory thalamocortical processing.
- Michael Lohse
- , Johannes C. Dahmen
- & Andrew J. King
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Article
| Open AccessSmall-molecule inhibition of Lats kinases may promote Yap-dependent proliferation in postmitotic mammalian tissues
Although Hippo signaling restricts regeneration in many mammalian organs, the pharmaceutical tools available to modulate the pathway have been limited. Here, the authors report a small molecule that may inhibit a key element in the Hippo cascade and may activate regenerative responses in several mammalian tissues.
- Nathaniel Kastan
- , Ksenia Gnedeva
- & A. J. Hudspeth
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Article
| Open AccessEMX2-GPR156-Gαi reverses hair cell orientation in mechanosensory epithelia
Sensory hair cells develop an asymmetric architecture to restrict stimulus detection to a single axis. Here the authors identify GPR156 as directing a 180-degree reversal in hair cell orientation through Gαi, downstream of EMX2 in the mouse inner ear and zebrafish lateral line.
- Katie S. Kindt
- , Anil Akturk
- & Basile Tarchini
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Article
| Open AccessInner hair cell stereocilia are embedded in the tectorial membrane
Hearing requires inner hair cell (IHC) stereocilia deflection, believed to result from hydrodynamic coupling due to the lack of contact with the tectorial membrane (TM). Here the authors show that IHC stereocilia are TM-embedded, and calcium rich structures in TM may facilitate sound transduction.
- Pierre Hakizimana
- & Anders Fridberger
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Article
| Open AccessEfferent feedback controls bilateral auditory spontaneous activity
Spontaneous activity generated in the cochleae propagates into the central auditory system to promote circuit formation before hearing onset. Here, the authors reveal the important role of cholinergic efferent modulation in coordinating bilateral spontaneous activity and the emergence of functional responses.
- Yixiang Wang
- , Maya Sanghvi
- & Michael Crair
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Article
| Open AccessSingle cell plasticity and population coding stability in auditory thalamus upon associative learning
How thalamic sensory relays participate in plasticity upon associative fear learning and stable long-term sensory coding remains unknown. The authors show that auditory thalamus neurons exhibit heterogeneous plasticity patterns after learning while population level encoding of auditory stimuli remains stable across days.
- James Alexander Taylor
- , Masashi Hasegawa
- & Jan Gründemann
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Article
| Open AccessGraded recruitment of pupil-linked neuromodulation by parametric stimulation of the vagus nerve
Despite its wide and growing use, the mechanisms by which in vivo vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) exerts its therapeutic benefits are still largely unknown. Here, the authors show in mice that pupil dilation is a reliable and noninvasive biosensor for titratable VNS-evoked cortical neuromodulation by acetylcholine.
- Zakir Mridha
- , Jan Willem de Gee
- & Matthew James McGinley
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Article
| Open AccessBifurcation in brain dynamics reveals a signature of conscious processing independent of report
Current knowledge on the neural basis of consciousness mostly relies on situations where people report their perception. Here, the authors provide evidence for the idea that bifurcation in brain dynamics reflects conscious perception independent of report.
- Claire Sergent
- , Martina Corazzol
- & Daniel Pressnitzer
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Article
| Open AccessHuman cortical encoding of pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages
Different languages rely on different vocal sounds to convey meaning. Here the authors show that language-general coding of pitch occurs in the non-primary auditory cortex for both tonal (Mandarin Chinese) and non-tonal (English) languages, with some language specificity on the population level.
- Yuanning Li
- , Claire Tang
- & Edward F. Chang
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Article
| Open AccessSingle-molecule force spectroscopy reveals the dynamic strength of the hair-cell tip-link connection
The conversion of auditory and vestibular stimuli into electrical signals is initiated by force transmitted to a mechanotransduction channel through the tip link. Here authors show that a single tip-link bond is more mechanically stable relative to classic cadherins, and that the double stranded tip-link connection is stabilized by single strand rebinding facilitated by strong cis-dimerization domains.
- Eric M. Mulhall
- , Andrew Ward
- & Wesley P. Wong
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Article
| Open AccessRecurrent network dynamics shape direction selectivity in primary auditory cortex
Aponte et al. show that cortical direction selectivity to frequency modulated sounds is shaped by asymmetric signal amplification within recurrent circuits. Optogenetics and network modelling demonstrate that this asymmetry arises due to broad spatial topography of SOM cell mediated inhibition.
- Destinee A. Aponte
- , Gregory Handy
- & Hiroyuki K. Kato
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Article
| Open AccessSound generation in zebrafish with Bio-Opto-Acoustics
Existing tools to study hearing are limited. Here the authors report Bio-OptoAcoustic (BOA) stimulation wherein they use optical forces to generate localised sound and activate the auditory system of zebrafish larvae.
- Itia A. Favre-Bulle
- , Michael A. Taylor
- & Ethan K. Scott