Plasticity in the Primary Auditory Cortex: Substrate of Specific Long-Term Memory Traces

Glossary Best frequency (BF) – The frequency that produces the best cellular response to a frequency at a given soundlevel intensity. Conditioned response (CR) – A behavioral response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus as a result of classical or instrumental conditioning. Conditioned stimulus (CS) – An initially neutral stimulus that elicits a behavioral response after it has been associated with an unconditioned stimulus. Frequency receptive field (frequency RF) – The portion of the acoustic spectrum to which a cell in the auditory system is sensitive. Frequency RFs are often called ‘tuning curves.’ Local field potentials (LFPs) – Responses of sensory (auditory) cortex to sensory (acoustic) stimuli, which are comprised of evoked voltage changes in the low-frequency range (1–300 Hz). They generally index excitatory postsynaptic potentials recorded in extracellular space with a large electrode on the surface or in the depths of the cortex. Tonotopic map – The progressive distribution of best frequencies across primary auditory cortex. The posterior-to-anterior axis has a systematic range of BFs, from lower to higher, respectively. Unconditioned response (UR) – An innate behavioral response that is elicited by a stimulus in the absence of conditioning. Unconditioned stimulus (US) – A stimulus that elicits a UR.