Plasticity of temporal integration in ferret auditory cortex

Retrieving meaning from complex auditory stimuli requires flexible binding in time of auditory features at different timescales. Recent reports suggest that sensory perception relies on a hierarchy of auditory timescales and progressive processing of information through a hierarchy of cortical areas. Although temporal dynamics of auditory perception have been thoroughly studied, little is known about the plasticity of temporal integration windows (or timescales) in the auditory cortex. To address this question we study the neural responses of the auditory cortex of the ferret to complex continuous auditory stimuli during behavior. 

In this internship, the student will work with a PhD student to train animals on a behavioral task and collect intracranial extracellular neural responses during behavior and passive exposure as well as peripheral measures such as pupil, ECG, respiration, or motor activity. The internship takes place at the Neuro platform of the Laboratory of Perceptual Systems, at the Department of Cognitive Studies. 

The student would start training the animals during the first semester of the M2, and continue with data acquisition and analysis in S2. An analysis pipeline is already available for initial analysis after data collection.

We are seeking a student with strong organizational skills. Data analysis skills are not necessary but appreciated. During the internship, the student will be introduced to single unit and lfp analysis. 

Please contact Yves Boubenec (boubenec@ens.fr) and Magdalena Sabat (magdalena.sabat@ens.psl.eu) for additional information, including ongoing manuscript related to this project. This internship can be indiscriminately conducted in English or in French.
 

References:

- Norman-Haignere, S.V., Long, L.K., Devinsky, O. et al. Multiscale temporal integration organizes hierarchical computation in human auditory cortex. Nat Hum Behav 6, 455–469 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01261-y

- Zeraati, R., Engel, T.A. & Levina, A. A flexible Bayesian framework for unbiased estimation of timescales. Nat Comput Sci 2, 193–204 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-022-00214-3

- Zeraati R, Yan-Liang Shi, Nicholas A. Steinmetz, Marc A. Gieselmann, Alexander Thiele, Tirin Moore, Anna Levina, Tatiana A. Engel Attentional modulation of intrinsic timescales in visual cortex and spatial networks. bioRxiv (2021); doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.17.444537