Fig. 6: Auditory input during tactile goal-directed behavior decreases reaction time.
From: Auditory input enhances somatosensory encoding and tactile goal-directed behavior
a Tactile goal-directed task: Mice were trained to receive a water reward if they licked a reward port in response to tactile stimulus alone (Tactile-trial; 200 Hz, 500 ms) and paired tactile and auditory stimulus (AudTac-trial). On random trials, mice were also presented with auditory stimulus alone (Auditory-trial; 2–50 kHz) which was not rewarded. Pupil diameter was measured during task performance illustrating Tactile-trials (black) and AudTac-trials (red) had similar dilation. Gray, stimulus; Green, response (R); Blue, reward. Inset, eye pupil ROI. b Pupil dilation during Tactile-trials was not significantly different to AudTac-trials (AT; n = 6 mice; 17 trialsav; p = 0.31 p = 0.22; pshuffled = 0.563; Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test). However, pupil dilation during both Tactile-trials and AudTac-trials was significantly greater than Auditory-trials (n = 6 mice; 10 trialsav; p = 0.031; pshuffled = 0.156; Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test). c Licking activity in an example mouse performing the goal-directed task during Tactile-trials (black), AudTac-trials (red) and Auditory-trials (blue). Dots, detected licks on lick port. Reward delivery, blue. Inset, expanded view of gray boxed region highlighting licking response from stimulus onset (colored line). d The licking response in AudTac-trials was faster than Tactile-trials (n = 18 mice; 50/61 trialsav; p = 0.0002; pshuffled = 0.610; Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test). e Percentage of trials with a lick in the response window during Tactile-trials (black), AudTac-trials (red) and Auditory-trials (blue). There was no significant difference in performance between Tactile-trials and AudTac-trials (p = 0.327; pshuffled = 0.229; n = 18 mice; 61/50 trialsav; two-tailed Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test). Error bars represent S.E.M. ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001.
