2025/01/24 by Rasmus Kordt Christensen, Florian Studer, Tania Rinaldi Barkat · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · Computer Science · #Neural dynamics and brain function #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation
paper · doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2025.102720
openalex publication_date 2025/01/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The brain faces the challenging task of preserving a consistent portrayal of the external world in the face of disruptive sensory inputs. What alterations occur in sensory representation amidst noise, and how does brain activity adapt to it? Although it has previously been shown that background white noise (WN) decreases responses to salient sounds, a mechanistic understanding of the brain processes responsible for such changes is lacking. We investigated the effect of background WN on neuronal spiking activity, membrane potential, and network oscillations in the mouse central auditory system. We found that, in addition to increasing background spiking activity in the auditory cortex and thalamus, background WN decreases neural activity fluctuations, as reflected in the membrane potential of single neurons and the local field potential. Blocking acetylcholine signaling in the auditory cortex eliminated the WN-dependent increase in background activity as well as the shift in slow-wave oscillations. Together, our observations show that background WN is not filtered away along the auditory pathway, but rather drives sustained changes in cortical activity that can be reverted by blocking cholinergic inputs.