Identifying Brain Regions that Enable Auditory Localization in Freely Moving Mice. Open Access

Abstract

People and animals can localize sounds while moving around their environment, but the neural circuits for this are unknown. One candidate structure is the auditory cortex, which is involved in higher-order processing of sound. This project tries to identify the brain structures that allow mice to perform, learn, and adapt to localizing sound while freely moving. We trained freely moving mice in a new behavioral task that challenges them to find a reward port that is playing sound. We used surgical aspiration lesions to test the role of the auditory cortex, and computational anatomy to locate the lesions in the brain. We found that the complete bilateral removal of auditory cortex and nearby structures strongly impaired the ability to perform this task, but that partial removal had a smaller effect. Therefore, we conclude that the ability to perform this task is distributed over auditory cortex and nearby structures.

Table of Contents

 

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Methods…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Results ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

Discussion …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Tables and Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...11

Figure 1. Auditory Localization Task…………………………………………………………………………………………11

Figure 2. Histology Sections Showing Auditory Cortex Lesion and Visual Cortex Lesion Location.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

Fig 3. Schematic Illustrating Scoring of the Auditory Behavior Task…………………………………........13

Figure 4. Learning curves for the First AC Lesion Cohort Before the Lesion.……………………………..14

Figure 5. Learning curves For Second AC and VC Lesion Cohort Before the Lesion……………………15

Figure 6. Lesion Analysis Figure. ………………………………………………...……………………………………..16, 17

Figure 7. Allen Mouse Brain Atlas Exported Regions Showing Lesioned Areas for Each Mouse……………………………………………………………………………...………………………………………………..18,19

Figure 8: Bar Plot Showing the Number of Lesioned Area Across all Mice.………………………….…...20

Table 1. Breakdown of the Metrics Used to Score the Behavioral Task……………………………..…….21

Table 2. Table Summary of Fisher’s Analysis Statistical Significance Results…………………….………22

Table 3: Data for Fisher’s Analysis. …………………………………………...……………………………………….23, 24

Table 4: Aggregate of all Damaged Brain Areas. …………………………………….………………………………..25

References……………………………………………………………………………........…………………………………….26, 27

 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Biology, Neuroscience
Keyword	Auditory Cortex Lesions Active Sensing Freely Moving Mice Sound Localization
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Christopher Rodgers, Emory University
Committee Members	Claire-Anne Gutekunst, Emory University Malavika Murugan, Emory University

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