Extended Data Fig. 10: Intrinsic tuning in auditory cortex acts as a scaffold for experience-dependent plasticity during co-housing.

a, e, Synaptic tuning. b, c, f, g, Neuronal tuning. Colours denote ISIs used throughout the manuscript (red denotes fast, pink denotes prototypes, blue denotes slow). a, b, In pup-naive auditory cortex, excitatory neurons respond robustly to prototypical calls (a) as a result of sharply tuned excitatory drive and weak, untuned synaptic inhibition (b). Intrinsic tuning might result from hardwired cortical circuits or developmental experiences. c, Interneurons exhibit broad, unselective tuning characteristic of inhibitory populations that pool local activity. d, Oxytocin release during co-housing, possibly stimulated by virgin-pup interactions, may serve to transiently decrease intracortical inhibition⁸. This could enable the re-balancing of excitatory-inhibitory inputs: excitatory neurons broaden as excitatory drive increases across all ISIs. While inhibitory output tuning sharpens, net postsynaptic inhibitory drive is enhanced to (1) balance the increase in excitation across salient ISIs⁸ and (2) sharpen tuning to slow ISIs (e, I > E for slow ISIs). As a result of oxytocin receptor lateralization⁸, left auditory cortex may be particularly sensitive to exemplars frequently heard during co-housing. Whereas oxytocin may disinhibit the network, proper spike timing in relation to pup vocalizations is also required for the pairing of reliable pre- and post-synaptic activity²⁷ (Fig. 4d). e–g, In experienced virgins, excitatory and inhibitory neurons are broadly tuned to behaviourally-salient ISIs, which reflect exemplar statistics, to enable generalization and reliable pup retrieval.