Feature-dependent decorrelation of sound representations across the auditory pathway

Early studies on orientation selectivity in the visual cortex have suggested that sensory systems generate new feature representations at specific processing stages. Many observations challenge this view, but in the absence of systematic, multistage measurements, the logic of how feature tuning emerges remains elusive. Here, using a generic approach based on representational similarity analysis with a noise-corrected population metric, we demonstrate in the mouse auditory system that feature representations evolve gradually with, in some cases, major, feature-specific improvements at particular stages. We observe that single frequency tuning is already fully developed in the cochlear nucleus, the first stage of processing, while tuning to higher-order features improves up to the auditory cortex, with major steps in the inferior colliculus for amplitude modulation frequency or noise bandwidth tuning and in the cortex for frequency modulation direction and for complex sound identity or direction. Moreover, we observe that intensity tuning is established in a feature-dependent manner, earlier for pure frequencies than for more complex sounds. This indicates that auditory feature computations are a mix of stepwise and gradual processes which together contribute to decorrelate sound representations.