Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled text-to-speech (TTS) systems to produce voices increasingly indistinguishable from humans, posing significant societal risks, particularly through potential misuse in fraud and deception. To address this concern, this study combined behavioral assessments and neural measures using electroencephalography (EEG) to examine whether short-term perceptual training enhances people's ability to distinguish AI-generated from human speech. Thirty participants (of either sex) listened to sentences produced by human speakers and corresponding AI-generated clones, judging each sentence as either human or AI-generated before and after a brief (∼12-minute) training session, during which voices were explicitly labeled as "human" or "AI". Behaviorally, participants showed consistently poor discrimination before and after training, with only minimal improvement. However, neural analyses revealed substantial training-induced changes. Specifically, temporal respo...

A possible mechanism of temporal lobe epilepsy is insufficient inhibition of hippocampal dentate granule cells. Precipitating injuries that kill interneurons in the dentate gyrus might result in fewer inhibitory synapses with granule cells. To test this hypothesis, previous studies evaluated numbers or densities of interneurons, γ-amino butyric acid (GABA)ergic boutons, and inhibitory synapses in tissue from human patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and rodent models. However, those studies have limitations. Some of those limitations can be addressed by a large animal model. Sea lions ( Zalophus californianus ) can develop temporal lobe epilepsy naturally. Like humans, epileptic sea lions exhibit bilateral or unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (neuron loss) with granule cell vulnerability, but sea lions permit optimal tissue preservation and sampling, and good control subjects. To label interneuron cell bodies and GABAergic synaptic boutons, sea lion hippocampal tissue from both sexes was processed with imm...

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) produces diffusible signals sufficient to sustain circadian locomotor rhythms, though the nature of such signals, their targets, and the pathway whereby such signals may travel is unknown. It is possible that the venous portal veins that connect the capillary beds of the SCN to those of the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) provide a vascular pathway whereby signals originating in SCN neurons can reach local targets in the OVLT. Given the presence of the blood-brain interface (BBI) within the SCN, it is unclear how diffusible signals originating in SCN neurons might access the capillary vasculature of this nucleus. Estimates of astrocyte coverage of capillary vasculature range widely, from 70-100%, and furthermore such coverage can change dynamically. In the present study, we investigated whether three vasoactive peptidergic processes found in the mouse SCN, namely vasopressin, vasoactive intestinal peptide and gastrin releasing peptide, might breach the B...

Forming a long-term memory requires changes in neuronal transcription. What happens, though, as the memory is forgotten? And how does the transcriptional state relate to the maintenance and recall of the long-term memory? To answer these questions we have been systematically tracing the time-course of transcriptional changes evoked by long-term sensitization in the marine mollusk Aplysia californica . Our approach captures transcriptional changes in neurons of known behavioral relevance using a within-subjects design, delineating patterns of transcriptional change that are comprehensive and reproducible. We have previously reported that within 1 day of long-term sensitization training there is a widespread transcriptional response involving robust changes in over 5% of tested transcripts (1,252 of ∼22k; Conte, 2017). Within 1 week, however, memory strength fades and nearly all transcriptional changes relapse to baseline (Perez, 2018). Here we report microarray analysis ( N = 16) of transcriptional changes ...

Kaitlin Laws and Greg Bashaw discuss their paper, “DrosoPHILA: A Partnership between Scientists and Teachers That Begins in the Lab and Continues into City Schools,” published in Vol. 10, Issue 2 of eNeuro, with BrainFacts editor Kelley Remole. 

If you’ve never nominated someone for an award, the process can be daunting. At SfN, there are multiple categories meant for different achievement types, and each award’s requirements are different. This can make it confusing when you’re trying figure out if someone is eligible and if you can put together a nomination in time.

Bridging integrator 1 ( BIN1 ) is one of the strongest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), yet its function in the brain and role in AD remain unclear. Neuronal BIN1 isoform levels are decreased in AD, and recent data show an important role of BIN1 in inhibitory neurons. Inhibitory neurons are key regulators of cognition and network excitability, with parvalbumin-expressing (PV) neurons as the most abundant subtype. We tested the hypothesis that loss of BIN1 from PV neurons contributes to AD-related cognitive dysfunction and network hyperexcitability. We generated a cell type–specific conditional knock-out mouse line, Bin1- pvKO, and examined mice of both sexes. These mice showed few behavioral differences when assessed with traditional or machine learning–based behavioral tests, with only a slight reduction in exploratory behavior in aged cohorts. Bin1- pvKO mice showed no significant differences in network excitability on measures of induced seizure susceptibility and spiking on cortical e...

Implicit adaptation recalibrates movements based on sensory prediction errors. It is often characterized as automatic and resource-independent, suggesting that it is insulated from cognitive influence. Here, we asked whether implicit adaptation is sensitive to goal-directed attentional demands imposed by a concurrent visual task. Across two experiments, we used clamped visual feedback to measure implicit adaptation while human adults (49 females, 23 males) monitored a rapidly changing visual stream for targets. In Experiment 1, participants performing the visual task showed modest early enhancement in implicit adaptation relative to a single-task control condition. In Experiment 2, adding response-contingent feedback to the visual task led to stronger and more sustained enhancement. Visual task accuracy and implicit adaptation were uncorrelated, arguing against resource competition. Model-based analyses revealed elevated error sensitivity under dual-task conditions, with individual differences reflecting a...

Reward prediction errors (RPEs) guide learning by comparing expected and obtained outcomes. In mammals, ventral tegmental area (VTA) activity is closely linked to RPE-like signaling, yet how avian VTA dynamics evolve during reinforcement learning remains less well characterized. Here we recorded VTA spiking in pigeons (two females and one male) performing a cue-guided operant task in which a green cue (cue+) predicted reward contingent on a key peck, whereas a red cue (cue−) was unrewarded. Using a 16-channel microwire array, we analyzed pooled channel-level multiunit activity (MUA) aligned to task events. Across sessions, cue+ trials showed a learning-related redistribution of event-locked modulation: outcome-locked activity was more prominent early in training, while cue-locked modulation became stronger as performance stabilized, consistent with a temporal-difference–like shift of prediction-related signals. Cue− trials were sparse after early learning and showed limited cue-locked modulation in the ava...

Molecular tools available for rodent research enable detailed interrogation of the neural cell types and circuits that give rise to perception and decision-making during complex behaviors. To take full advantage of these molecular tools and successfully define causal relationships between neural function and overt actions during learning, there is a need for low-cost behavioral platforms with inherent flexibility in the implementation of task details. We present a behavioral platform capable of executing both head-fixed and freely moving task designs. The platform incorporates a user-interactive GUI that allows parameters to be adjusted online, during an acquisition session. Task metrics and performance indicators are acquired and organized into a standardized output, enabling single users to quickly master data analysis across a variety of task designs. To demonstrate the flexibility of the platform, mice of either sex were trained in two discrimination tasks: a head-fixed two-choice task as well as a fre...