Associative responses to visual shape stimuli in the mouse auditory cortex

PLoS One. 2019 Oct 3;14(10):e0223242. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223242. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Humans can recall various aspects of a characteristic sound as a whole when they see a visual shape stimulus that has been intimately associated with the sound. In subjects with audio-visual associative memory, auditory responses that code the associated sound may be induced in the auditory cortex in response to presentation of the associated visual shape stimulus. To test this possibility, mice were pre-exposed to a combination of an artificial sound mimicking a cat's "meow" and a visual shape stimulus of concentric circles or stars for more than two weeks, since such passive exposure is known to be sufficient for inducing audio-visual associative memory in mice. After the exposure, we anesthetized the mice, and presented them with the associated visual shape stimulus. We found that associative responses in the auditory cortex were induced in response to the visual stimulus. The associative auditory responses were observed when complex sounds such as "meow" were used for formation of audio-visual associative memory, but not when a pure tone was used. These results suggest that associative auditory responses in the auditory cortex represent the characteristics of the complex sound stimulus as a whole.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Auditory Cortex / physiology*
  • Auditory Perception / physiology
  • Form Perception / physiology*
  • Male
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Visual Perception / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 22115011 and no.16H01892 to K.S.). URL:https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.