Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, United States.
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, United States.
Front Neural Circuits. 2021 May 28;15:670858. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2021.670858. eCollection 2021.
The corticostriatal circuit has been identified as a vital pathway for associative learning. However, how learning is implemented when the sensory striatum is permanently impaired remains unclear. Using chemogenetic techniques to suppress layer five auditory cortex (AC) input to the auditory striatum, learning of a sound discrimination task was significantly impacted in freely moving Mongolian gerbils, in particular when this suppression occurs early on during learning. Whole-cell recordings sampled throughout learning revealed a transient reduction in postsynaptic (GABAA) inhibition in both striatal D1 and D2 cells in normal-hearing gerbils during task acquisition. In contrast, when the baseline striatal inhibitory strengths and firing rates were permanently reduced by a transient period of developmental sensory deprivation, learning was accompanied by augmented inhibition and increased firing rates. Direct manipulation of striatal inhibition and revealed a key role of the transient inhibitory changes in task acquisition. Together, these results reveal a flexible corticostriatal inhibitory synaptic plasticity mechanism that accompanies associative auditory learning.
皮质纹状体回路已被确定为联想学习的重要途径。然而，当感觉纹状体永久受损时，学习是如何实现的仍不清楚。使用化学遗传技术抑制听觉皮层（AC）第五层对听觉纹状体的输入，自由活动的蒙古沙鼠在声音辨别任务中的学习受到显著影响，特别是当这种抑制在学习早期发生时。在整个学习过程中进行的全细胞记录显示，在正常听力的沙鼠中，在任务获取过程中，纹状体 D1 和 D2 细胞的突触后（GABAA）抑制会短暂减少。相比之下，当基线纹状体抑制强度和放电率由于发育性感觉剥夺的短暂时期而永久降低时，学习伴随着抑制增强和放电率增加。纹状体抑制的直接操纵 和 揭示了在任务获取中短暂抑制变化的关键作用。总之，这些结果揭示了伴随联想听觉学习的灵活的皮质纹状体抑制性突触可塑性机制。
