Zuzanna Slonina: What can we learn from inactivation studies? Lessons from auditory cortex

Inactivation methods differ in their efficacy and specificity. The likelihood of observing a behavioural deficit is additionally influenced by factors such as the species being used, task design and reward.

A synthesis of previous results suggests that auditory cortex involvement is critical for tasks that require integrating across multiple stimulus features, and less likely to be critical for simple feature discriminations.

New methods of neural silencing provide opportunities for spatially and temporally precise manipulation of activity, allowing perturbation of individual subfields and specific circuits.

Inactivation experiments in auditory cortex (AC) produce widely varying results that complicate interpretations regarding the precise role of AC in auditory perception and ensuing behaviour. The advent of optogenetic methods in neuroscience offers previously unachievable insight into the mechanisms transforming brain activity into behaviour. With a view to aiding the design and interpretation of future studies in and outside AC, here we discuss the methodological challenges faced in manipulating neural activity. While considering AC’s role in auditory behaviour through the prism of inactivation experiments, we consider the factors that confound the interpretation of the effects of inactivation on behaviour, including the species, the type of inactivation, the behavioural task employed, and the exact location of the inactivation.

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