This is basic science in a non-traditional species ... but it may have implications for speech processing in lower auditory areas in humans some day. See this short piece for my thoughts on discovery-based science, universities, and federal funding: t.co/jJgOOv9em6

Huge thanks to BRAIN initiative and NIH funding and to amazing collaborators, @cynthiamoss.bsky.social and Mel Wohlgemuth!

if you read, and say 'well but a lot of things can be better with federal funding or academia', I agree. but i also don't think we need to caveat everything each time we talk about the good that comes from universities

Thanks Livia!

Thanks @ioanacarcea.bsky.social !!

TLDR, we propose that the sensory cortex is better described as a ‘sensory-enriched associative cortex’ whereby sensory, associative, and performance functions are intermingled (i.e. co-existing in the same network and neurons) but are computationally separable

4/ We trained mice on a modified auditory go/no-go task that uses simple pure tone cues (to avoid complex/perceptual processing by the auditory cortex) that allows us to dissociate rapid learning (acquisition of contingencies) from slower performance gains 🐭📈

3/ But anyone who has trained animals in the lab (or pets at home!) probably has had the intuition that they sometimes know more than they let on🤔

2/ We often equate learning and performance in the lab leading to the view that learning even simple sensorimotor tasks can take forever. This slow learning is thought to be supported by a gradual expansion of predictive cue representation in the sensory cortex

1/ A century ago, Tolman showed that meaningful learning can occur even without apparent performance improvements. What is the neural basis of this distinction between learning something vs learning to perform? We tackle this in a new manuscript 🔥 🐭🔬📰