hide
Free keywords:
-
Abstract:
Myelinating oligodendrocytes enable fast propagation of action potentials along the
ensheathed axons. In addition, oligodendrocytes play diverse non-canonical roles including
axonal metabolic support and activity-dependent myelination. An open question remains
whether myelination also contributes to information processing in addition to speeding up
conduction velocity. Here, we analyze the role of myelin in auditory information processing
using paradigms that are also good predictors of speech understanding in humans. We
compare mice with different degrees of dysmyelination using acute multiunit recordings in
the auditory cortex, in combination with behavioral readouts. We find complex alterations of
neuronal responses that reflect fatigue and temporal acuity deficits. We observe partially
discriminable but similar deficits in well myelinated mice in which glial cells cannot fully
support axons metabolically. We suggest a model in which myelination contributes to sus-
tained stimulus perception in temporally complex paradigms, with a role of metabolically
active oligodendrocytes in cortical information processing.
