Presenter(s): Matthew Nardoci—Biochemistry/Biology
Co-Presenter(s): Jewlyssa Pedregon
Faculty Mentor(s): Santiago Jaramillo
Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation
The striatum plays a critical role in decision-making based on sensory input . Specifically, the posterior region of the striatum receives projections from auditory regions of both the cerebral cortex and the thalamus . This posterior region of the striatum contains several classes of neurons, but it is not known whether these distinct neuron classes respond uniquely to different sound stimuli . Specifically, the striatum contains two types of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) that form the direct and indirect pathways, suggesting that these MSNs play distinct roles . To test whether these two types of MSNs differ in their responses to sounds, we characterized evoked responses to basic acoustic stimuli such as pure tones and amplitude modulated white noise in naive mice . We discovered that the two populations of striatal neurons differ in the way they represent temporal modulations of sounds . This suggests that direct and indirect pathway neurons in the posterior striatum differently influence sound-driven decisions as they each process distinct sound features .