Dakshitha B Anandakumar
BME PhD Proposal Presentation

Date:2021-12-06
Time: 11:00 am EST
Location / Meeting Link: https://emory.zoom.us/j/96520028928

Committee Members:
Robert C. Liu, PhD (Advisor) Joseph Manns, PhD Gordon Berman, PhD Malavika Murugan, PhD Ming-fai Fong, PhD


Title: Auditory cortical plasticity associated with socially reinforced complex sounds

Abstract: We often encounter contexts where complex sounds reliably predict rewarding social interactions, like the distinctive footsteps of a friend approaching or the unique ringtone from a partner’s phone call. Social rewards may serve as a potent driver for the sensory learning of such communicative sounds, but how they are encoded in the auditory system and altered by social experience is not well understood. The goal of this project is to investigate the coding mechanisms of the auditory cortex in representing novel synthetic sounds that become associated with rewarding social interactions. In Aim 1, a sound-guided behavioral task will be used to evaluate the changes in response properties of single neurons to the newly learned sound. Aim 2 will focus on assessing the transformation of neural responses to behaviorally relevant sounds along the auditory cortical processing pathway. Aim 3 will determine the auditory mechanisms involved in processing meaningful sounds in naturalistic settings such as in the presence of background noise. The three aims will further our understanding of how sounds of communicative significance are processed in the brain and the extent to which individual experiences might shape this process.