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The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors

The ability to perceive the world is not merely a passive process but depends on sensorimotor loops and interactions that guide and actively bias our sensory systems. Understanding which and how cognitive processes participate in this active sensing is still an open question. In this context, the au...

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Autores principales: Vicencio-Jimenez, Sergio, Bucci-Mansilla, Giuliana, Bowen, Macarena, Terreros, Gonzalo, Morales-Zepeda, David, Robles, Luis, Délano, Paul H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8695804/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34955720
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.759219
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author Vicencio-Jimenez, Sergio
Bucci-Mansilla, Giuliana
Bowen, Macarena
Terreros, Gonzalo
Morales-Zepeda, David
Robles, Luis
Délano, Paul H.
author_facet Vicencio-Jimenez, Sergio
Bucci-Mansilla, Giuliana
Bowen, Macarena
Terreros, Gonzalo
Morales-Zepeda, David
Robles, Luis
Délano, Paul H.
author_sort Vicencio-Jimenez, Sergio
collection PubMed
description The ability to perceive the world is not merely a passive process but depends on sensorimotor loops and interactions that guide and actively bias our sensory systems. Understanding which and how cognitive processes participate in this active sensing is still an open question. In this context, the auditory system presents itself as an attractive model for this purpose as it features an efferent control network that projects from the cortex to subcortical nuclei and even to the sensory epithelium itself. This efferent system can regulate the cochlear amplifier sensitivity through medial olivocochlear (MOC) neurons located in the brainstem. The ability to suppress irrelevant sounds during selective attention to visual stimuli is one of the functions that have been attributed to this system. MOC neurons are also directly activated by sounds through a brainstem reflex circuit, a response linked to the ability to suppress auditory stimuli during visual attention. Human studies have suggested that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory and predictability. The aim of this research was to explore whether cognitive processes related to delayed responses in a visual discrimination task were associated with MOC function. In this behavioral condition, chinchillas held their responses for more than 2.5 s after visual stimulus offset, with and without auditory distractors, and the accuracy of these responses was correlated with the magnitude of the MOC reflex. We found that the animals’ performance decreased in presence of auditory distractors and that the results observed in MOC reflex could predict this performance. The individual MOC strength correlated with behavioral performance during delayed responses with auditory distractors, but not without them. These results in chinchillas, suggest that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory.
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spelling pubmed-86958042021-12-24 The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors Vicencio-Jimenez, Sergio Bucci-Mansilla, Giuliana Bowen, Macarena Terreros, Gonzalo Morales-Zepeda, David Robles, Luis Délano, Paul H. Front Neurosci Neuroscience The ability to perceive the world is not merely a passive process but depends on sensorimotor loops and interactions that guide and actively bias our sensory systems. Understanding which and how cognitive processes participate in this active sensing is still an open question. In this context, the auditory system presents itself as an attractive model for this purpose as it features an efferent control network that projects from the cortex to subcortical nuclei and even to the sensory epithelium itself. This efferent system can regulate the cochlear amplifier sensitivity through medial olivocochlear (MOC) neurons located in the brainstem. The ability to suppress irrelevant sounds during selective attention to visual stimuli is one of the functions that have been attributed to this system. MOC neurons are also directly activated by sounds through a brainstem reflex circuit, a response linked to the ability to suppress auditory stimuli during visual attention. Human studies have suggested that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory and predictability. The aim of this research was to explore whether cognitive processes related to delayed responses in a visual discrimination task were associated with MOC function. In this behavioral condition, chinchillas held their responses for more than 2.5 s after visual stimulus offset, with and without auditory distractors, and the accuracy of these responses was correlated with the magnitude of the MOC reflex. We found that the animals’ performance decreased in presence of auditory distractors and that the results observed in MOC reflex could predict this performance. The individual MOC strength correlated with behavioral performance during delayed responses with auditory distractors, but not without them. These results in chinchillas, suggest that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8695804/ /pubmed/34955720 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.759219 Text en Copyright © 2021 Vicencio-Jimenez, Bucci-Mansilla, Bowen, Terreros, Morales-Zepeda, Robles and Délano. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Vicencio-Jimenez, Sergio
Bucci-Mansilla, Giuliana
Bowen, Macarena
Terreros, Gonzalo
Morales-Zepeda, David
Robles, Luis
Délano, Paul H.
The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors
title The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors
title_full The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors
title_fullStr The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors
title_full_unstemmed The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors
title_short The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors
title_sort strength of the medial olivocochlear reflex in chinchillas is associated with delayed response performance in a visual discrimination task with vocalizations as distractors
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8695804/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34955720
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.759219
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