Speaker: Dan Sanes, Ph.D.
Professor
Center for Neural Science
New York University
Title: Perceptual and neural consequences of early auditory experience
Abstract:
A general theory of development holds that a heightened period of neural plasticity underlies both a greater capacity for learning and a greater vulnerability to sensory deprivation, such as hearing loss. To address the neural mechanisms associated with developmental skill learning, we recorded telemetrically from auditory cortex of adolescent and adult gerbils as they trained and improved on a psychometric task. Adolescents learned more slowly than adults, consistent with human studies (Huyck and Wright, 2011; Pattwell et al., 2012), and auditory cortex neuron sensitivity to the acoustic stimuli displayed smaller improvements during training. To address the neural mechanisms associated with sensory deprivation, we studied the relationship between hearing loss-induced perceptual deficits and auditory cortex synapse function. Here, we found that hearing loss well before adolescence induced both perceptual deficits and a long-lasting reduction of auditory cortex synaptic inhibition. Furthermore, rescuing synaptic inhibition with a pharmacological treatment, either during or after the period of hearing loss, could restore normal perceptual skills. Together, these findings illustrate age-dependent forms of plasticity that influence both learning and perception.
Brief bio:
Dan Sanes is a Professor in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. He earned a doctorate in Biology from Princeton, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Yale and the University of Virginia. His lab explores how early auditory experience, including hearing loss, influences the development of cortical synapse function. At the systems level, the lab asks how hearing loss or auditory learning influence the emergence of adult perception, and the cortical mechanisms that support these skills. Dr. Sanes was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010, co-authors the undergraduate textbook “Development of the Nervous System,” and is a Senior Editor at the Journal of Neuroscience. His research is funded by the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
