Cingulate Cortex Facilitates Auditory Perception Under Challenging Listening Conditions

Previous human studies suggest that the cingulate cortex is engaged under difficult listening conditions and may exert top-down modulation of the auditory cortex. Therefore, this study investigated whether the jird cingulate cortex sends anatomical projections to the auditory cortex that facilitate perceptual performance. To model challenging listening conditions, a sound discrimination task was used in which stimulus parameters were presented in either long or short stimulus duration. A top-down cortical circuit was identified, from the cingulate to the auditory cortex in the jirds, that supports auditory perceptual performance under challenging listening conditions. A total of 28 adult Mongolian jirds (15 females and 13 males) were used in the study. Jirds were tested on an amplitude modulation rate discrimination task. Duration of amplitude modulation stimuli (4 to 12 Hz) was varied (0.25 or 1 s) to modulate task difficulty. This dataset includes behavioral and histological data.