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Auditory cortical contrast enhancing by global winner-take-all inhibitory interactions.

Lookup NU author(s): Dr John Crook

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Abstract

Brains decompose the world into discrete objects of perception, thereby facing the problem of how to segregate and selectively address similar objects that are concurrently present in a scene. Theoretical models propose that this could be achieved by neuronal implementations of so-called winner-take-all algorithms where neuronal representations of objects or object features interact in a competitive manner. Here we present evidence for the existence of such a mechanism in an animal species. We present electrophysiological neuropharmacological and neuroanatomical data which suggest a novel view of the role of GABAA-mediated inhibition in primary auditory cortex (Al), where intracortical GABAA-mediated inhibition operates on a global scale within a circular map of sound periodicity representation in Al, with functionally inhibitory projections of similar effect from any location throughout the whole map. These interactions could underlie the proposed competitive "winner-take-all" algorithm to support object segregation, e.g., segregation of different speakers in cocktail-party situations. © 2008 Kurt et al.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Kurt S, Deutscher A, Crook JM, Ohl FW, Budinger E, Moeller CK, Scheich H, Schulze H

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: PLoS ONE

Year: 2008

Volume: 3

Issue: 3

Date deposited: 04/02/2010

ISSN (electronic): 1932-6203

Publisher: Public Library of Science

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001735

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001735

PubMed id: 18320054

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