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Control of central auditory processing by a brain-generated oestrogen

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 13, pages 521–527 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recent discoveries show that behaviourally relevant sensory experience drives the production of oestradiol — the classic sex steroid oestrogen — in auditory neurons in the adult brain of both males and females. This brain-generated oestrogen markedly enhances the efficiency of the neural coding of acoustic cues and shapes auditory-based behaviours on a timescale that is relevant for sensory processing and congruent with the action of rapid neuromodulators. These findings are re-shaping our current understanding of the mechanistic framework that supports sensory processing and the functional roles of hormones in the brain, and have implications for multiple health issues.

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Figure 1: Oestradiol rapidly enhances sound-driven neural responses and mutual information rates in the awake songbird brain.
Figure 2: Current mechanistic understanding of oestradiol's modulation of auditory neuronal physiology.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize to authors whose papers were not discussed here owing to the short format. We thank C. Woolley, D. Ferster (Northwestern University, Illinois, USA) and G. DeAngelis (University of Rochester, New York, USA) for comments on the manuscript and valuable discussions. The authors' work is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (grant R01-DC-010181), the US National Science Foundation (grant 1064684) and the Searle Leadership Fund (grant to R.P.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Raphael Pinaud and Liisa A. Tremere are at the Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.,

    Raphael Pinaud & Liisa A. Tremere

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  1. Raphael Pinaud
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Correspondence to Raphael Pinaud.

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Glossary

Rate coding

A neural coding scheme in which stimulus information is coded through changes in neuronal spiking frequency.

Response gain

Sensitivity of a neuronal response to a constant set of inputs.

Temporal coding

Multiple definitions of temporal coding exist, but here the term refers to a neural coding scheme in which information is coded through the precision in the timing of action potentials.

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Pinaud, R., Tremere, L. Control of central auditory processing by a brain-generated oestrogen. Nat Rev Neurosci 13, 521–527 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3291

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