Events

Repetitive stress is a pervasive feature of modern life and a major risk factor for psychiatric and sensory disorders, yet how it alters sensory processing remains poorly understood. In this talk, I will present evidence that chronic stress concurrently remodels auditory cortical activity and noradrenergic signaling, leading to measurable changes in perception in adult mice. Combining repeated-stress paradigms with longitudinal two-photon imaging of neuronal activity and norepinephrine dynamics, alongside auditory-guided behavior, we find that stress increases spontaneous activity in auditory cortex while weakening sound-evoked responses in pyramidal neurons and parvalbumin interneurons. In contrast, somatostatin interneurons become more sound-responsive, suggesting a shift in inhibitory balance that can suppress pyramidal and PV output. These circuit changes are accompanied by behavioral consequences, most prominently a reduction in perceived loudness. Together, our results identify a cell-type-specific mechanism by which chronic stress reshapes sensory coding and link dysregulated internal-state signals to perceptual abnormalities associated with psychiatric disease.