Physiology and Psychophysics of the Precedence Effect

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的总体目标是继续调查在复杂环境中清醒，行为的猫的听力。优先效应的许多方面已经通过人类心理物理实验进行了广泛的测量。在动物身上进行的行为和生理实验则不那么普遍。更不常见的是同时测量每个受试者的行为和生理的实验。在清醒的猫身上进行的这些同时进行的行为和生理实验很重要，因为它们在一个接一个的实验基础上告诉我们，动物在哪里识别出了一个声源，以及与声源识别位置相关的潜在神经。我们已经知道猫会经历优先效应，并且被麻醉的猫的下丘中的单个单位显示出与定位优势和回声阈值相关，但关于优先效应的许多方面，包括回声抑制的建立和破坏以及Franssen效应，我们仍然知之甚少。该训练的目的是结合猫的心理物理和神经生理方法，研究回声对声音定位的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of the proposed research is to continue the investigation of hearing in complex environments in awake, behaving cats. Many aspects of the precedence effect have been extensively measured using psychophysical experiments in humans. Less prevalent are the behavioral and physiological experiments in animals. Even less common are the experiments where behavior and physiology are measured simultaneously in each subject. These simultaneous behavioral and physiological experiments in awake behaving cats are important because they tell us on a trial-by-trial basis exactly where the animals identify a presented sound source and the underlying neural correlates to that source's identified location. It is already known that cats experience the precedence effect and that single units in the inferior colliculus of anesthetized cats show correlates to localization dominance and echo thresholds, but much is still unknown about many of the aspects of the precedence effect including the buildup and breakdown of echo suppression and the Franssen Effect. The objective of the proposed training is to investigate the influence of echoes on sound localization while combining the psychophysical and neurophysiological approaches in cats.