Kar, Manaswini
(2025)
Laminar organization of vocalization processing and attentional modulation in auditory cortex.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
This thesis investigates the neural mechanisms underlying vocalization categorization in the auditory system, focusing on feature-based representations and attentional modulation. Using electrophysiology, behavior, and computational modeling in guinea pigs, we examined how vocalizations are encoded along the auditory pathway and how task engagement shapes these representations. Our recordings revealed that while neurons in the thalamus and primary auditory cortex (A1) layer 4 responded broadly to spectral content, a significant proportion of A1 layer 2/3 neurons exhibited highly selective responses to specific vocalization features. This emergence of feature selectivity supports theoretical models of auditory categorization based on intermediate complexity features. We then trained guinea pigs on vocalization categorization tasks and found that our feature-based computational model, trained only on natural calls, successfully predicted animal behavior across various spectro-temporal manipulations. Finally, we investigated how task engagement modulates vocalization processing in A1 using chronic recordings during active and passive listening conditions. We found that attention altered the input-output relationships, particularly in A1 layer 2/3 neurons which can potentially lead to improved separability between target and non-target vocalizations at the population level. Together, these findings demonstrate that feature-based vocalization representations emerge in superficial layers of auditory cortex and are further enhanced by attention, providing new insights into the neural computations underlying robust vocalization categorization in complex acoustic environments.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
| Title | Member | Email Address | Pitt Username | ORCID |
|---|
| Committee Chair | Silva, Alfonso | | | | | Committee Member | Runyan, Caroline | | | | | Committee Member | Kandler, Karl | | | | | Committee Member | Hong, Kate | | | | | Committee Member | Holt, Lori | | | | | Committee Member | Rosen, Merri | | | | | Thesis Advisor | Sadagopan, Srivatsun | | | |
|
| Date: |
14 February 2025 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
8 November 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
14 February 2025 |
| Submission Date: |
24 January 2025 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
249 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Medicine > Medicine |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
vocalization, neural, Laminar organization |
| Date Deposited: |
14 Feb 2025 20:01 |
| Last Modified: |
14 Feb 2025 21:36 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/47345 |
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