Fig. 2: Social exposure enhances the rate of task acquisition.
From: Sensory cortex plasticity supports auditory social learning
a Schematic of the social learning paradigm. Left panel: A naïve social observer (blue) instrumented with an electrode array implanted in AC initially experiences five consecutive social exposure sessions with a trained demonstrator gerbil (brown) that is performing an AM discrimination task. Right panel: The social observer subsequently practices the AM discrimination task. b Schematic of the non-social exposure paradigm. Left panel: A naïve non-social exposure animal (orange) instrumented with an electrode array implanted in AC initially experiences five consecutive non-social exposure sessions to experimenter-triggered auditory task cues. Right panel: The non-social exposure animals subsequently practice the AM discrimination task. c Left panel: AC recordings were obtained during each exposure day from both social observers and non-social exposure animals. Right panel: Task acquisition during practice sessions was assessed, and behavioral d′ of social observers and non-social exposure animals is plotted as a function of the day of practice. No d′ was computed when observers initiated <15 Nogo trials in the practice sessions. Thin lines denote individual animals; thick lines and transparent areas denote mean ± SE. Social observers reached criterion d′ in significantly fewer days than non-social exposure animals (Steel–Dwass nonparametric comparison, two-sided, p = 0.037).
