Auditory system articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The challenge of sensory substitution as a therapeutic approach is to design systems that are well accepted by subjects. Here, in deaf songbirds, the authors substitute hearing with vision, suggesting substitution devices could provide sensory feedback for the key actions that are deprived.

    • Anja T. Zai
    • , Sophie Cavé-Lopez
    •  & Richard H. R. Hahnloser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oligodendrocytes myelinate and metabolically support axons. The role of myelination in information processing beyond regulation of conduction velocity is unclear. Here, the authors show that myelination contributes to sustained stimulus perception in the auditory cortex, shaping neuronal responses.

    • Sharlen Moore
    • , Martin Meschkat
    •  & Klaus-Armin Nave

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The human brain fluently parses continuous speech during perception and production. Using direct brain recordings coupled with stimulation, the authors identify separable substrates underlying two distinct predictive mechanisms of “when” in Heschl’s gyrus and “what” in planum temporale.

    • K. J. Forseth
    • , G. Hickok
    •  & N. Tandon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using a combination of two-photon imaging and single-cell electrophysiology, the authors discover that associative learning induces the emergence of a unique subset of neurons in the auditory cortex, exhibiting high-rate bursting responses to the learned complex sounds but not to any of the constituents.

    • Meng Wang
    • , Xiang Liao
    •  & Xiaowei Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Speech production is thought to rely on speech motor programs in the left cerebral hemisphere and on auditory feedback control by the right halve of the human brain. Here, the authors reveal that the left hemisphere preferentially controls temporal speech features while the right hemisphere controls speech by analyzing spectral features of the auditory feedback.

    • Mareike Floegel
    • , Susanne Fuchs
    •  & Christian A. Kell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Music varies across cultures, but some features are widespread, consistent with biological constraints. Here, the authors report that both Western and native Amazonian listeners perceptually fuse concurrent notes related by simple-integer ratios, suggestive of one such biological constraint.

    • Malinda J. McPherson
    • , Sophia E. Dolan
    •  & Josh H. McDermott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors compare receptive fields and nonlinearities of synaptic inputs, membrane potentials, and spiking activity in the auditory cortex for broadband stimuli revealing distinct differences, which lead to an increase in feature selectivity from neuron input to output. Frequency selectivity is distinctly higher for spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) than for tonal receptive fields (TRFs).

    • Kyunghee X. Kim
    • , Craig A. Atencio
    •  & Christoph E. Schreiner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Auditory contrast gain control helps us perceive sounds as constant despite changes in the environment or background noise. Here, the authors show that neurons in the auditory thalamus and midbrain of mice display independent contrast gain control, not just the cortex as previously thought.

    • Michael Lohse
    • , Victoria M. Bajo
    •  & Ben D. B. Willmore

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    The auditory frequency-following response (FFR) indexes the quality of neural sound encoding in the brain. In this Perspective, the authors discuss the potential of the FFR to provide a better understanding of sound encoding in the auditory system and its relationship to behavior.

    • Emily B. J. Coffey
    • , Trent Nicol
    •  & Nina Kraus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A common complication of cisplatin-based chemotherapy is hearing loss. Here, Park et al. show that glutathione transferase α4 (GSTA4) contributes to reducing cisplatin toxicity in the inner ear of female mice by removing 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE).

    • Hyo-Jin Park
    • , Mi-Jung Kim
    •  & Shinichi Someya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show that areas of the auditory cortex differ in the extent to which their responses to sounds are altered by the presence of background noise. Cortical responses to sounds in primary areas are more affected by background noise than are those in non-primary areas.

    • Alexander J. E. Kell
    •  & Josh H. McDermott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is little known about the function or molecular identity of the electron-dense stereocilia coat, which is transiently present at the surface of stereocilia. In this study authors screened a database of hair-cell-enriched translated proteins to identify the expression of Polycystic Kidney and Hepatic Disease 1-Like 1 (PKHD1L1), a large, mostly extracellular protein, and show that it forms the coat at the tips of stereocilia and is required for normal hearing in mice

    • Xudong Wu
    • , Maryna V. Ivanchenko
    •  & David P. Corey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are currently few AAV vectors that can effectively target the diverse cell types of the inner ear. Here the authors design AAV-ie for gene delivery to the mouse cochlea, targeting cochlear supporting cells.

    • Fangzhi Tan
    • , Cenfeng Chu
    •  & Guisheng Zhong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Certain sounds are especially attention-grabbing and often unpleasant as well. Here, the authors show that fast but perceptible amplitude modulations in the ‘roughness range' (30–150 Hz) are temporally salient and synchronise not just brain auditory networks but also salience-related networks.

    • Luc H. Arnal
    • , Andreas Kleinschmidt
    •  & Pierre Mégevand

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The left hemisphere of the brain is especially involved in processing social vocalizations and (in humans) language, but the mechanisms of this lateralization of function are unclear. Here, the authors compared left and right auditory cortex in mice and show lateralized, experience-dependent circuit-motifs.

    • Robert B. Levy
    • , Tiemo Marquarding
    •  & Hysell V. Oviedo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How does the auditory system allow for accurate speech perception against changes in background noise? Here, using neural activity in the auditory cortex as people listen to speech, the authors provide evidence that background noise is selectively suppressed to enhance representations of speech.

    • Bahar Khalighinejad
    • , Jose L. Herrero
    •  & Nima Mesgarani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Our perception of a speech sound tends to remain stable despite variation in people’s vocal characteristics. Here, by measuring neural activity as people listened to speech from different voices, the authors provide evidence for speaker normalization processes in the human auditory cortex.

    • Matthias J. Sjerps
    • , Neal P. Fox
    •  & Edward F. Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cochlear implant spectral resolution is limited by current spread from each stimulation electrode. Here the authors compare optogenetic, electric and acoustic stimulation in gerbils and demonstrate improved spectral resolution of optogenetic over conventional electric stimulation.

    • Alexander Dieter
    • , Carlos J. Duque-Afonso
    •  & Tobias Moser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sounds vary in the strength of behavioural conditioning they can evoke, a property attributed to stimulus salience. Here, the authors show that stimulus salience the overall level of neuronal activity recruited in the auditory cortex is strongly related with its reinforcing strength.

    • Sebastian Ceballo
    • , Jacques Bourg
    •  & Brice Bathellier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vocalizations such as speech or animal calls have high variability in production. Here, the authors report that a few mid-level acoustic features provide sufficient information to generalize across this variability and classify vocalization types and auditory cortical neurons exhibit tuning to these features.

    • Shi Tong Liu
    • , Pilar Montes-Lourido
    •  & Srivatsun Sadagopan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In contrast to the extensively studied mechanosensory hair bundle, the cuticular plate is not as well understood. In this study, authors describe the discovery of a hair cell protein called LIM only protein 7, which is localized in the cuticular plate and the cell junction and may play a role in age-related deafness.

    • Ting-Ting Du
    • , James B. Dewey
    •  & Jung-Bum Shin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adeno-associated virus is used in gene therapy in mouse models of hearing loss. Here the authors compare vectors and find AAV2.7m8 can infect cells in the inner ear with high efficiency.

    • Kevin Isgrig
    • , Devin S. McDougald
    •  & Wade W. Chien

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The precise role of auditory cortical and thalamic projections in the representation of sound in the auditory striatum is not known. Here, the authors show that silencing thalamic inputs lowers the gain of sound-evoked responses while cortical inputs only affect the best frequency responses of striatal neurons.

    • Liang Chen
    • , Xinxing Wang
    •  & Qiaojie Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perceptual constancy requires neural representations selective for object identity, yet tolerant of identity-preserving transformations. Here, the authors show that sound identity is represented robustly in auditory cortex and that behavioral generalization requires precise timing of identity information.

    • Stephen M. Town
    • , Katherine C. Wood
    •  & Jennifer K. Bizley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hidden hearing loss (HHL) arises through subtle damage to the synapses of hair cells in the inner ear before audiograms reveal hearing threshold shifts. Here, the authors report that HHL in a mouse model disrupts the neural encoding of loud sound environments in the central auditory system.

    • Warren Michael Henry Bakay
    • , Lucy Anne Anderson
    •  & Roland Schaette

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The sound envelope is important for speech perception. Here, the authors look at mechanisms by which the sound envelope is encoded, finding that it arises from distortion produced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. Surprisingly, the envelope is not present in basilar membrane vibrations.

    • Alfred L. Nuttall
    • , Anthony J. Ricci
    •  & Anders Fridberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hearing requires mechanosensitive hair cells in the organ of Corti, which derive from progenitors of the cochlear duct. Here the authors examine human inner ear development by studying key developmental markers and describe organoid cultures from human cochlear duct progenitors for in vitro hair cell differentiation.

    • Marta Roccio
    • , Michael Perny
    •  & Pascal Senn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Auditory processing is an important component of mosquito behaviour including mating. Here the authors demonstrate substantial sex- and also species-specific variation in mosquito auditory transduction, amplification and gain control.

    • Matthew P. Su
    • , Marta Andrés
    •  & Joerg T. Albert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) of the cochlea receive input from hair cells and project to the auditory brainstem. Here, the authors perform single-cell RNA sequencing to identify four SGN subclasses and characterize their molecular profile, electrophysiological properties and connectivity.

    • Charles Petitpré
    • , Haohao Wu
    •  & François Lallemend

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During vocalization, mammals change their vocal production to compensate for altered auditory feedback. Here, Eliades and Tsunada show that neural activity in the marmoset’s auditory cortex mediates this effect, and that stimulation of the auditory cortex evokes similar changes in vocalization.

    • Steven J. Eliades
    •  & Joji Tsunada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensory areas are thought to process stimulus information while higher-order processing occurs in association cortices. Here the authors report that during task engagement population activity in ferret primary auditory cortex shifts away from encoding stimulus features toward detection of the behaviourally relevant targets.

    • Sophie Bagur
    • , Martin Averseng
    •  & Srdjan Ostojic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harmonicity is associated with a single sound source and may be a useful cue with which to segregate the speech of multiple talkers. Here the authors introduce a method for perturbing the constituent frequencies of speech and show that violating harmonicity degrades intelligibility of speech mixtures.

    • Sara Popham
    • , Dana Boebinger
    •  & Josh H. McDermott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Functional morphemes allow us to express details about objects, events, and their relationships. Here, authors show that inhibiting a small cortical area within left posterior superior temporal lobe selectively impairs the ability to produce functional morphemes but does not impair other linguistic abilities.

    • Daniel K. Lee
    • , Evelina Fedorenko
    •  & Ziv M. Williams

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Binaural cue processing in auditory brainstem relies on the precise temporal relationship between excitatory and inhibitory inputs. Here the authors provide direct evidence that sub-millisecond precise inhibition can tune sensitivity to input processing in the lateral superior olive via post inhibitory facilitation.

    • Barbara Beiderbeck
    • , Michael H. Myoga
    •  & Michael Pecka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optogenetic applications would benefit from channelrhodopsins (ChRs) with faster photostimulation, increased tissue transparency and lower phototoxicity. Here, the authors develop fast red-shifted ChR variants and show the abilities for temporal precise spiking of cerebral interneurons and restoring auditory activity in deaf mice.

    • Thomas Mager
    • , David Lopez de la Morena
    •  & Ernst Bamberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Striatum mediates goal-oriented behaviors and habitual actions. This study shows that auditory information is represented by neuronal activity of the posterior tail of the dorsal striatum in mice, and that this brain region mediates rodent’s flexible decision making based on auditory cues.

    • Lan Guo
    • , William I. Walker
    •  & Santiago Jaramillo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hair cells of the inner ear are mechanosensors that detect sound, and synapse onto afferent neurons. Here, the authors used calcium imaging to find that not all hair cells are synaptically engaged, but after damage these silent cells are synaptically engaged.

    • Qiuxiang Zhang
    • , Suna Li
    •  & Katie S. Kindt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fos-CreER knock-in mice enable tagging of neurons that are activated within a distinct time window. Here, the authors develop a Cre reporter mouse with low baseline activation and use it to reveal the specific coding properties of auditory cortex neurons that are activated by pup calls in both naive mice and mothers.

    • Gen-ichi Tasaka
    • , Casey J. Guenthner
    •  & Adi Mizrahi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantitatively studying components of the presynapse requires high resolution optical methods. Here the authors use confocal microscopy as well as 2D- and 3D-STED nanoscopy to quantify the number and activity of active zone Ca2+ channels in inner hair cells.

    • Jakob Neef
    • , Nicolai T. Urban
    •  & Tobias Moser

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