Borland Michael S, Buell Elizabeth P, Riley Jonathan R, Carroll Alan M, Moreno Nicole A, Sharma Pryanka, Grasse Katelyn M, Buell John M, Kilgard Michael P, Engineer Crystal T
Department of Neuroscience, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States.
Texas Biomedical Device Center, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2023 Sep 5;17:1248936. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1248936. eCollection 2023.
Repeatedly pairing a tone with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) alters frequency tuning across the auditory pathway. Pairing VNS with speech sounds selectively enhances the primary auditory cortex response to the paired sounds. It is not yet known how altering the speech sounds paired with VNS alters responses. In this study, we test the hypothesis that the sounds that are presented and paired with VNS will influence the neural plasticity observed following VNS-sound pairing.
To explore the relationship between acoustic experience and neural plasticity, responses were recorded from primary auditory cortex (A1) after VNS was repeatedly paired with the speech sounds 'rad' and 'lad' or paired with only the speech sound 'rad' while 'lad' was an unpaired background sound.
Pairing both sounds with VNS increased the response strength and neural discriminability of the paired sounds in the primary auditory cortex. Surprisingly, pairing only 'rad' with VNS did not alter A1 responses.
These results suggest that the specific acoustic contrasts associated with VNS can powerfully shape neural activity in the auditory pathway. Methods to promote plasticity in the central auditory system represent a new therapeutic avenue to treat auditory processing disorders. Understanding how different sound contrasts and neural activity patterns shape plasticity could have important clinical implications.
反复将音调与迷走神经刺激（VNS）配对会改变整个听觉通路的频率调谐。将VNS与语音配对可选择性增强初级听觉皮层对配对声音的反应。目前尚不清楚改变与VNS配对的语音如何改变反应。在本研究中，我们检验了以下假设：呈现并与VNS配对的声音将影响VNS-声音配对后观察到的神经可塑性。
为了探究听觉经验与神经可塑性之间的关系，在VNS反复与语音“rad”和“lad”配对或仅与语音“rad”配对而“lad”作为未配对的背景声音后，记录初级听觉皮层（A1）的反应。
将两种声音都与VNS配对可增强初级听觉皮层中配对声音的反应强度和神经辨别能力。令人惊讶的是，仅将“rad”与VNS配对并未改变A1的反应。
这些结果表明，与VNS相关的特定声学对比可有力地塑造听觉通路中的神经活动。促进中枢听觉系统可塑性的方法代表了一种治疗听觉处理障碍的新治疗途径。了解不同的声音对比和神经活动模式如何塑造可塑性可能具有重要的临床意义。
