Age and learning shapes sound representations in auditory cortex during adolescence

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Auditory Processing

Background:

• Adolescence is a critical period of brain development with heightened plasticity.
• Understanding how ongoing neural development impacts sensory processing and cognitive functions is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related differences in auditory discrimination and cognitive control between adolescent and adult mice.
• To examine neural processing in the auditory cortex during a pure tone Go/No-Go task.

Main Methods:

• Electrophysiological recordings in the auditory cortex of adolescent and adult mice during an auditory discrimination task.
• Behavioral assessment of task performance, including accuracy and lick bias.
• Analysis of single-neuron spiking activity and population-level decoding.

Main Results:

• Adolescent mice exhibited lower performance on difficult auditory discrimination tasks compared to adults.
• Higher response variability and weaker cognitive control (increased lick bias) were observed in adolescents.
• Cortical representations and population decoding were less efficient and slower in adolescents, particularly after learning.

Conclusions:

• Adolescence is characterized by distinct neurophysiological and behavioral profiles compared to adulthood.
• Immature cortical representations and developing cognitive control mechanisms contribute to age-related differences in auditory processing.
• Learning exacerbates age-related differences, highlighting the interplay between development and experience.