EEG/ECoG/EMG publications

Cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) are widely distributed in the brain, including the inferior colliculus (IC). Here, we aim to study whether endocannabinoids influence a specific type of neuronal adaptation, namely, stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) found in some IC neurons. SSA is important because it has been found as early as the level of the midbrain and therefore it may be a neuronal correlate of early indices of deviance detection. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated a direct link between SSA and MMN, that is widely used as an outcome measure in a variety of human neurodegenerative disorders. SSA is considered a form of short-term plasticity, and CBRs have been shown to play a role in short-term neural plasticity. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that endocannabinoids may play a role in the generation or modulation of SSA. We recorded single units in the IC under an oddball paradigm stimulation. The results demonstrate that cannabinoid agonists lead to a reduction in the neuronal adaptation. This change is due to a differential increase of the neuronal firing rate to the standard tone alone. Furthermore, we show that the effect is mediated by the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CBR1). Thus, cannabinoid agonists down-modulate SSA in IC neurons.

Behavioral studies support the concept of an auditory spatial attention gradient by demonstrating that attentional benefits progressively diminish as distance increases from an attended location. Damage to the right inferior parietal cortex can induce a rightward attention bias, which implicates this region in the construction of attention gradients. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to define attention-related gradients before and after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the right inferior parietal cortex. Subjects (n = 16) listened to noise bursts at five azimuth locations (left to right: -90°, -45°, 0° midline, +45°, +90°) and responded to stimuli at one target location (-90°, +90°, separate blocks). ERPs as a function of non-target location were examined before (baseline) and after 0.9 Hz rTMS. Results showed that ERP attention gradients were observed in three time windows (frontal 230-340, parietal 400-460, frontal 550-750 ms). Significant transient rTMS effects were seen in the first and third windows. The first window had a voltage decrease at the farthest location when attending to either the left or right side. The third window had on overall increase in positivity, but only when attending to the left side. These findings suggest that rTMS induced a small contraction in spatial attention gradients within the first time window. The asymmetric effect of attended location on gradients in the third time window may relate to neglect of the left hemispace after right parietal injury. Together, these results highlight the role of the right inferior parietal cortex in modulating frontal lobe attention network activity.

Behavioral and EEG studies suggest spatial attention is allocated as a gradient in which processing benefits decrease away from an attended location. Yet the spatiotemporal dynamics of cortical processes that contribute to attentional gradients are unclear. We measured EEG while participants (n = 35) performed an auditory spatial attention task that required a button press to sounds at one target location on either the left or right. Distractor sounds were randomly presented at four non-target locations evenly spaced up to 180° from the target location. Attentional gradients were quantified by regressing ERP amplitudes elicited by distractors against their spatial location relative to the target. Independent component analysis was applied to each subject's scalp channel data, allowing isolation of distinct cortical sources. Results from scalp ERPs showed a tri-phasic response with gradient slope peaks at ~300 ms (frontal, positive), ~430 ms (posterior, negative), and a plateau starting at ~550 ms (frontal, positive). Corresponding to the first slope peak, a positive gradient was found within a central component when attending to both target locations and for two lateral frontal components when contralateral to the target location. Similarly, a central posterior component had a negative gradient that corresponded to the second slope peak regardless of target location. A right posterior component had both an ipsilateral followed by a contralateral gradient. Lateral posterior clusters also had decreases in α and β oscillatory power with a negative slope and contralateral tuning. Only the left posterior component (120-200 ms) corresponded to absolute sound location. The findings indicate a rapid, temporally-organized sequence of gradients thought to reflect interplay between frontal and parietal regions. We conclude these gradients support a target-based saliency map exhibiting aspects of both right-hemisphere dominance and opponent process models.

Auditory neurons that exhibit stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) decrease their response to common tones while retaining responsiveness to rare ones. We recorded single-unit responses from the inferior colliculus (IC) where SSA is known to occur and we explored for the first time SSA in the cochlear nucleus (CN) of rats. We assessed an important functional outcome of SSA, the extent to which frequency discriminability depends on sensory context. For this purpose, pure tones were presented in an oddball sequence as standard (high probability of occurrence) or deviant (low probability of occurrence) stimuli. To study frequency discriminability under different probability contexts, we varied the probability of occurrence and the frequency separation between tones. The neuronal sensitivity was estimated in terms of spike-count probability using signal detection theory. We reproduced the finding that many neurons in the IC exhibited SSA, but we did not observe significant SSA in our CN sample. We concluded that strong SSA is not a ubiquitous phenomenon in the CN. As predicted, frequency discriminability was enhanced in IC when stimuli were presented in an oddball context, and this enhancement was correlated with the degree of SSA shown by the neurons. In contrast, frequency discrimination by CN neurons was independent of stimulus context. Our results demonstrated that SSA is not widespread along the entire auditory pathway, and suggest that SSA increases frequency discriminability of single neurons beyond that expected from their tuning curves.