A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Department of Neuroscience

It is well established that learning and experience lead to auditory cortical plasticity that is highly specific to the frequency of the acquired sound. Frequency specificity is demonstrated as the shift in the receptive field of cortical neurons towards the frequency of the acquired sound. Jafari and others showed that this frequency-specific receptive field shift of cortical neurons can be induced by focal electrical stimulation of the ventral division of the medial geniculate body (MGBv) of the thalamus; implicating that, auditory thalamocortical system is important for frequency-specific receptive field plasticity. Up and down regulation of synaptic strength, i.e. long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of thalamocortical synaptic transmission is proposed as an underlying mechanism for such cortical plasticity. To date, auditory thalamocortical synaptic plasticity and its relation to frequency specific plasticity remain poorly characterized. The present thesis illustrates the changes in thalamocortical field postsynaptic excitatory potential (fEPSP) in the primary auditory cortex (AI) by high frequency tetanic stimulation of the MGBv (TS MGBv). Anesthetized mice were employed as the experimental model. The thesis is divided into three research projects. The first one was to characterize the changes in thalamocortical fEPSP following TS MGBv. I found that TS MGBv induced significant depression in thalamocortical fEPSP at the best frequency (BF) of the recorded AI neurons (BF AI) and potentiation at the BF of stimulated MGBv (BF MGBv) neurons. The depression and potentiation were based on the analysis of the fEPSP amplitude, latency and rising slope. It should be noted here that the BFs of all studied AI neurons were different from those of stimulated MGBv neurons. The second project was to test the role of NMDA and GABA A receptors in TS MGBv-iii induced changes in thalamocortical fEPSPs. Microiontophoresis application of d-(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (APV), a NMDAR antagonists and Bicuculline methiodide (BMI), a GABA A antagonists using multibarrel electrode was given to the recorded loci in the AI. I found that, under continuous application of APV to the recorded AI neurons, TS MGBv led to significant decrease in the cortical fEPSPs at both BF AI and BF MGBv. The decrease in fEPSP at the BF AI was significantly greater than that without APV application. Next, I found that under the continuous application of BMI, TS MGBv induced LTP at both BF AI and BF MGBv. The LTP at BF MGBv was significantly larger than that without BMI application. When APV and BMI …