ANATOMY OF THE AUDITORY SYSTEM

本研究的目的是发现感觉神经元的结构特征， 神经元定义了它们编码信息的能力。 重点 关于特定类型的细胞的细胞学设计和连接模式 耳蜗水平的听觉神经元及其突触收缩 核、上级橄榄和耳蜗。 这项研究依赖于高尔基体， 经典的银技术来证明神经元结构， 银变性、组织化学和放射自显影方法追踪 连接和定位发射机相关的分子， 显微镜应用于正常和实验材料。 足够的细节 与感觉神经元的电生理记录相关， 神经元，递质相关分子的神经化学研究， 感觉突触的电子显微镜观察。 这些焦点 研究的重点是对特定形态类型的电路进行定义 连接内外毛细胞的神经元 耳蜗核中的神经元投射到这些神经元 在形成橄榄耳蜗束的上级橄榄复合体中。 的 所得的相关性为探讨其机理提供了依据 解释听觉中的刺激编码和信息处理 系统 噪声和声剥夺对大鼠耳蜗结构的影响 中枢听觉突触也在研究中。

The goal of this research is to discover the structural features of sensory neurons that define their capacities to code information. The emphasis is on the cytological design and pattern of connections of specific types of auditory neurons and their synaptic contracts at the levels of the cochlear nucleus, superior olive, and cochlea. This study relies on the Golgi and classical silver techniques to demonstrate neuronal architecture, silver-degeneration, histochemical, and autoradiographic methods to trace connections and to localize transmitter-related molecules, and electron microscopy applied to normal and experimental material. Sufficient details are obtained to correlate with electrophysiological recordings of sensory neurons, neurochemical studies of transmitter-related molecules, and electron microscopic observations of sensory synapses. The focus for these studies is on a definition of the circuits of specific morphological types of neurons linking inner and outer hair cells with those particular kinds of neurons in the cochlear nucleus which project to those types of neurons in the superior olivary complex forming the olivo-cochlear bundles. The resulting correlations provide a basis for exloring the mechanisms accounting for stimulus coding and information processing in the auditory system. The effects of noise and acoustic deprivation on the structure of central auditory synapses are also being studied.