A cortical role for skilled, sound-guided behavior in mice

PROJECT SUMMARY The abilities to detect errors and improve performance following mistakes are paramount to behaviors such as speech and musicianship. Although hearing is instrumental for monitoring and adapting these behaviors, the neural circuits that integrate motor, acoustic, and goal-related signals to detect errors and guide sensorimotor learning in mammals remain unidentified. In this proposal, we will employ two aims to investigate how the mouse auditory cortex encodes error- and learning-related signals during skilled sound- generating behavior, and whether auditory-cortical activity is necessary for learning from performance mistakes. In Aim 1, we will develop a novel closed-loop, sound-guided behavior that requires mice to use real-time acoustic feedback to guide skilled forelimb movements. Then, we will test whether this behavior is dependent upon intact auditory cortex activity. In Aim 2, we will then explore how auditory cortex integrates acoustic and task-related information at the neuronal level to determine how errors and predictions are encoded and whether auditory cortical activity informs future improvements in behavioral outcomes. We hypothesize that auditory cortex integrates acoustic, motor, and goal-directed information during this skilled sensorimotor behavior and plays a critical role in error correction and learning both on short and long-time scales. This work will help reveal how auditory and motor regions of the brain interact during sound-guided behavior and will advance our understanding of predictive processing in sensory cortex. The implications of these results will lay the groundwork for future research into how behavioral controlling regions of the brain then process sensory error information and update behavior during skilled learning.