# Contributions of distinct auditory pathways to sound-driven choices

> **NIH NIH R56** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2022 · $144,550

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Effective interpretation of sound requires discriminating acoustic features and linking them to appropriate
behavioral responses depending on past experience. Much remains unknown, however, about the roles
that different neural pathways play in representing, learning, and performing these associations. As
a step toward addressing the long-term goal of understanding how the nervous system flexibly links
sounds to actions, this research will study the contributions of the multiple auditory pathways that target
the striatum, the main input stage of the basal ganglia and a key structure in the regulation of motor
behavior. Specifically, the project will focus on the flow of information from the auditory thalamus
as well as primary and non-primary areas of the auditory cortex to the posterior tail of the striatum.
The central hypothesis is that the various auditory cortical and thalamic pathways to the striatum all
play distinct roles during learning and execution of sound-driven decisions. This work will consist of
developing theoretical models of sound representation and learning in the multiple auditory pathways
converging on the striatum, as well as carrying out experiments in mice trained to perform acoustic
discrimination tasks in order to test and refine these models. These experiments will take advantage
of novel techniques for reversible manipulation of specific neural pathways while monitoring large
numbers of neurons simultaneously during behavior. The project is organized in three aims. The first
aim is to determine the conditions in which auditory cortico-striatal and thalamo-striatal pathways play
distinct roles during performance of sound-action association tasks. The second aim is to determine the
roles of auditory cortical vs. thalamic pathways to the striatum during learning of these tasks. The third
aim is to identify the acoustic features of natural sounds conveyed by distinct auditory cortical fields to
the striatum. Together, these studies will reveal the relative contributions of distinct neural pathways to
sound-driven behavior in the healthy brain, and they will provide insights into how auditory cognition
can be affected by disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10597329
- **Project number:** 2R56DC015531-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** Santiago Jaramillo
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $144,550
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2016-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10597329

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10597329, Contributions of distinct auditory pathways to sound-driven choices (2R56DC015531-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10597329. Licensed CC0.

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