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Abstract
Sensory information is the basis of an integrated perception of reality and allows an organism to make informed decisions based upon events occurring in its surroundings. Mammals are equipped with five sensory modalities to sample the physical and chemical phenomena of the outside world. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying basic sensory processing in the brain are poorly understood. Particularly, an outstanding question is how do heterogeneous groups of cells, e.g. neuronal microcircuits, function in concert to extract and relay meaningful information about sensory inputs? This thesis focuses on a mammalian auditory brainstem region known as the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN).