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Updated: Nov 21, 2025

Stereotactically-guided Ablation of the Rat Auditory Cortex, and Localization of the Lesion in the Brain
Published on: October 11, 2017
Recurrent network dynamics shape direction selectivity in primary auditory cortex
Destinee A Aponte1,2, Gregory Handy3,4,5, Amber M Kline1,2
1Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
Abstract:
Detecting the direction of frequency modulation (FM) is essential for vocal communication in both animals and humans. Direction-selective firing of neurons in the primary auditory cortex (A1) has been classically attributed to temporal offsets between feedforward excitatory and inhibitory inputs. However, it remains unclear how cortical recurrent circuitry contributes to this computation. Here, we used two-photon calcium imaging and whole-cell recordings in awake mice to demonstrate that direction selectivity is not caused by temporal offsets between synaptic currents, but by an asymmetry in total synaptic charge between preferred and non-preferred directions. Inactivation of cortical somatostatin-expressing interneurons (SOM cells) reduced direction selectivity, revealing its cortical contribution. Our theoretical models showed that charge asymmetry arises due to broad spatial topography of SOM cell-mediated inhibition which regulates signal amplification in strongly recurrent circuitry. Together, our findings reveal a major contribution of recurrent network dynamics in shaping cortical tuning to behaviorally relevant complex sounds.
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