The representation of omitted sounds in the mouse auditory cortex

Humans and animals use predictions to optimize their behavior, however, the underlying neuronal implementation remains elusive. We address this using omitted sounds on the macro- and microscale of the auditory cortex of female, normal hearing mice using high-speed imaging.
Neuronal responses to the omission of expected sounds were time-locked to expected stimulus onset, localized to layer 1-4 of higher auditory area (Temporal Association Area, TeA) and continued to rise until the following stimulus. The omission responses differed from offset and deviant responses in their temporal shape, size and spatial localization. Omissions and sequence statistics correlated with behavioral changes by timed pupil dilation and rapid facial motions. While stimulus responses showed partial entrainment, omission responses maintained a distinct, unentrained shape.
The localized omission response in TeA is consistent with a hierarchical organization of predictive processing. However, the continued rise suggests an integrated, absolute prediction error, instead of a direct representation of prediction or prediction error, which would terminate with the omission.

This data collection contains all code used to generate the stimuli, run the exeriments as well as data processing and figure generation underlying the manuscript. For further details on the structure of the data, please refer to the README file.

人类与动物均通过预测优化自身行为，但其背后的神经元实现机制仍不明晰。本研究以听力正常的雌性小鼠为对象，采用高速成像技术，在听觉皮层的宏观与微观尺度下针对遗漏声音展开研究，以此探讨这一科学问题。

预期声音被遗漏时的神经元反应与预期刺激呈现时刻时间锁定，定位至高级听觉区（颞联合区，Temporal Association Area, TeA）的1-4层，且反应持续增强直至下一个刺激呈现。该遗漏反应在时域波形、响应幅度与空间定位上均与偏移反应及偏差反应存在差异。声音遗漏与序列统计特征可通过定时的瞳孔扩张及快速面部运动与行为变化建立关联。尽管刺激反应表现出部分锁相特性，遗漏反应仍保持独特的非锁相波形。

颞联合区（TeA）中定位明确的遗漏反应符合预测加工的层级组织架构。然而，反应的持续增强提示其代表的是整合后的绝对预测误差，而非直接表征预测或预测误差——若为后者，反应应随声音遗漏即刻终止。

本数据集包含了生成实验刺激、运行实验、数据处理及论文配图生成所用的全部代码。有关数据结构的更多细节，请参阅README文件。