UC Davis

Recent evidence is reshaping the view of primary auditory cortex (A1) from a unisensory area to one more involved in dynamically integrating multisensory- and task-related information. We found A1 single- (SU) and multiple-unit (MU) activity correlated with macaques' choices in an amplitude modulation (AM) discrimination task. Animals were trained to discriminate AM noise from unmodulated noise by releasing a lever for AM noise and holding down the lever for unmodulated noise. Activity for identical stimuli was compared between trials where the animals reported AM and trials where they did not. We found 47.4% of MUs and 22.8% of SUs significantly increased firing shortly before the animal's behavioral response to report AM when compared to the equivalent time period on trials where AM was not reported. Activity was also linked to lever release in a different task context, suggesting A1 modulation by somatosensory, or efference copy, input. When spikes were counted only during the stimulus, 19.6% of MUs and 13.8% of SUs increased firing rate when animals reported AM compared to when they did not, suggesting an attentional effect, or that A1 activity can be used by higher decision areas, or that such areas provide feedback to A1. Activity associated with AM reporting was correlated with a unit's AM sensitivity, suggesting AM sensitive neurons' involvement in task performance. A1 neurons' phase locking to AM correlated more weakly (compared to firing rate) with the animals' report of AM, suggesting a preferential role for rate-codes in A1 for this AM discrimination task.