Topographically organized maps of the sensory receptor epithelia are regarded as cornerstones of cortical organization as well as valuable readouts of diverse biological processes ranging from evolution to neural plasticity. However, maps are most often derived from multiunit activity recorded in the thalamic input layers of anesthetized animals using near-threshold stimuli. Less distinct topography has been described by studies that deviated from the formula above, which brings into question the generality of the principle. Here, we explicitly compared the strength of tonotopic organization at various depths within core and belt regions of the auditory cortex using electrophysiological measurements ranging from single units to delta-band local field potentials (LFP) in the awake and anesthetized mouse. Unit recordings in the middle cortical layers revealed a precise tonotopic organization in core, but not belt, regions of auditory cortex that was similarly robust in awake and anesthetized conditions. In core fields, tonotopy was degraded outside the middle layers or when LFP signals were substituted for unit activity, due to an increasing proportion of recording sites with irregular tuning for pure tones. However, restricting our analysis to clearly defined receptive fields revealed an equivalent tonotopic organization in all layers of the cortical column and for LFP activity ranging from gamma to theta bands. Thus, core fields represent a transition between topographically organized simple receptive field arrangements that extend throughout all layers of the cortical column and the emergence of non-tonotopic representations outside the input layers that are further elaborated in the belt fields.

Summary Sensory processing must be sensitive enough to encode faint signals near the noise floor, but selective enough to differentiate between similar stimuli. Here we describe a layer 6 corticothalamic (L6 CT) circuit in the mouse auditory forebrain that alternately biases sound processing towards hypersensitivity and improved behavioral sound detection or dampened excitability and enhanced sound discrimination. Optogenetic activation of L6 CT neurons could increase or decrease the gain and tuning precision in the thalamus and all layers of the cortical column, depending on the timing between L6 CT activation and sensory stimulation. The direction of neural and perceptual modulation – enhanced detection at the expense of discrimination or vice versa – arose from the interaction of L6 CT neurons and sub-networks of fast-spiking inhibitory neurons that reset the phase of low-frequency cortical oscillations. These findings suggest that L6 CT neurons contribute towards resolving the competing demands of detection and discrimination.

Highlights d Mice learn to fear sounds that precede aversive reinforcement by a 5-s silent gap d Auditory cortex neurons rapidly reorganize, but activity does not bridge the 5-s gap d Optotagged cholinergic basal forebrain neurons encode sound and aversive stimuli d Basal forebrain neurons bypass the 5-s gap to coordinate auditory cortex plasticity

Early binaural experience can recalibrate central auditory circuits that support spatial hearing. However, it is not known how binaural integration matures shortly after hearing onset or whether various developmental stages are differentially impacted by disruptions of normal binaural experience. Here we induce a brief, reversible unilateral conductive hearing loss (CHL) at several experimentally determined milestones in mouse primary auditory cortex (A1) development and characterize its effects approximately one week after normal hearing is restored. We find that experience shapes A1 binaural selectivity during two early critical periods. CHL before P16 disrupts the normal co-registration of interaural frequency tuning, whereas CHL on P16, but not before or after, disrupts interaural level difference (ILD) sensitivity contained in long-latency spikes. These data highlight an evolving plasticity in the developing auditory cortex that may relate to the etiology of amblyaudia, a binaural hearing impairment associated with bouts of otitis media during human infancy.

Plasma etching of thin films is essential for microelectronics manufacturing. With current feature sizes of 35 nm in production and processes for smaller devices being developed, the sidewall roughness is within the order of magnitude of the gate length of the device, and therefore significantly impacts the devices' performance. In this paper we review the modelling of the surface profile evolution in plasma etching. Both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models have been developed using a number of representations and solution algorithms. String algorithms and the method of characteristics use a segmented string which is incrementally advanced. Level-set representations describe the profile evolution as a moving interface in response to a velocity field. Cellular representations in which the area or volume domain is divided into discrete cells have been used with flux and surface kinetics based on Monte Carlo calculations. We discuss our work in the modelling of profile evolution with surface roughening using a 3D cellular Monte Carlo simulation. The formation of perpendicular and parallel ripple formation on planar surfaces as a function of ion bombardment incidence angle and the transformation from perpendicular to parallel as etching progresses has been modelled. The smoothing and/or roughening of resist masks has been demonstrated along with the pattern transfer of roughness into the underlying layers being etched.

Optogenetics provides a means to dissect the organization and function of neural circuits. Optogenetics also offers the translational promise of restoring sensation, enabling movement or supplanting abnormal activity patterns in pathological brain circuits. However, the inherent sluggishness of evoked photocurrents in conventional channelrhodopsins has hampered the development of optoprostheses that adequately mimic the rate and timing of natural spike patterning. Here, we explore the feasibility and limitations of a central auditory optoprosthesis by photoactivating mouse auditory midbrain neurons that either express channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) or Chronos, a channelrhodopsin with ultra-fast channel kinetics. Chronos-mediated spike fidelity surpassed ChR2 and natural acoustic stimulation to support a superior code for the detection and discrimination of rapid pulse trains. Interestingly, this midbrain coding advantage did not translate to a perceptual advantage, as behavioral detection of midbrain activation was equivalent with both opsins. Auditory cortex recordings revealed that the precisely synchronized midbrain responses had been converted to a simplified rate code that was indistinguishable between opsins and less robust overall than acoustic stimulation. These findings demonstrate the temporal coding benefits that can be realized with next-generation channelrhodopsins, but also highlight the challenge of inducing variegated patterns of forebrain spiking activity that support adaptive perception and behavior.

In this article the major kinetics models for plasma-surface interactions were reviewed highlighting their strengths and limitations. As a subset of reactive-site modeling, mixing-layer kinetics model was developed based upon the assumption of random atomic mixing in the top surface layer. The translation of the layer enabled the modeling of both etching and deposition. A statistical concept, nearest-neighbor bonding probability, was defined to express the concentration of any surface moieties with the surface elemental composition. A lumped set of reactions was adopted to carry on the overall physichemical processes including ion incorporation, neutral adsorption, physical sputtering, ion-enhanced etching, dangling bond generation and annihilation, and spontaneous etching. The rate coefficients were fitted to the experimental etching yields at various beam etching conditions. The good match between the kinetics modeling and the experimental results verified the capability of the mixing-layer model of predicting the poly-Si etching in chlorine plasma at various operating conditions. Then the kinetics model was incorporated into the three-dimensional Monte Carlo profile simulator. The concept of the mixing layer was simulated by a cellular-based model through composition averaging among neighboring cells. The reactions were sorted out in terms of ion initiated and neutral initiated, respectively, as discrete events. The reaction rates were calculated based upon the cellular composition and used as probabilities to remove particles from the cell. Results showed that the profile simulation combined with the kinetics, the numeric kinetics model, and the experimental etching yields are in quantitative agreement, which demonstrated the accuracy of kinetics after incorporation into the profile simulation. The simulation was compared to the published research work comprehensively including the etching yields, surface compositions, and dominant product distributions.

Time resolved current and voltage measurements have been made on a pulsed radio frequency (rf) inductively coupled plasma (ICP) at 13.56 MHz in argon. Measurements were made on the rf coil using a high-voltage probe, a Rogowski current probe, and a high-performance digital oscilloscope. Relative phase information was also obtained so that time resolved rf power measurements could be made. Due to the inductive nature of the load, measurement of the phase had to be better than 0.6 mrad at 13.56 MHz in order that the power measurements were accurate to 10%. This accuracy in phase measurement was achieved by careful positioning of the probes and by establishing accurate phase calibration procedures. The power was calculated by three methods: discrete Fourier transform, integral of the current voltage product over N periods, and least-squares fits of a sine wave to the measured data. Time-resolved measurements of the system complex impedance, power loss in the ICP planar coil, and the actual amount of rf power delivered to the plasma were made. These measurements give details during plasma breakdown and show the transition from capacitive to inductive discharge. The results are compared with both time-resolved plasma emission and time-resolved Langmuir probe measurements.