Processing AM signals in auditory system

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究项目的长期目标是了解交流声音的时间模式如何在中央听觉系统中被表征和处理。通信信号中的大部分信息，包括人类语言，都存在于它们的时间结构中。因此，了解声音的时间结构是如何在神经系统中表现和处理的，对于理解交流和交流障碍的神经基础至关重要。这项研究将在无尾动物的听觉系统上进行，因为它们发声的时间结构在它们的生殖生物学中已经被证明是重要的，并且行为研究可以用来描述它们的时间处理能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objectives of this research program are to understand how temporal patterns in communication sounds are represented and processed in the central auditory system. Much of the information in communication signals, including human language, resides in their temporal structure. An understanding of how the temporal structure of sounds is represented and processed in the nervous system, therefore, is vital to understanding the neural bases of communication and communicative disorders. The research will be conducted on the auditory system of anurans because the temporal structure of their vocalizations has been shown to be important in their reproductive biology and behavioral studies can be conducted to delineate their temporal processing abilities. Presently, little is known concerning the neural mechanisms of temporal processing in the auditory system. At a basic level, the temporal structure of sound consists of how its amplitude and frequency changes, i.e., is modulated, over time. The specific goals of this research project are to gain insight into how amplitude modulations are represented in the brain and the transformations in these representations. In a number of vertebrate species, including mammals, there is a transformation from a periodicity coding of the rate of amplitude modulation to an AM filter representation; most neurons in the midbrain respond best over a particular range of AM rate, i.e., are band-pass. The mechanisms underlying this transformation are poorly understood. Previous work showed that integration and recovery processes are important in generating AM filters. The specific experiments outlined in this research proposal are designed to test hypotheses concerning the mechanisms that underlie these integration and recovery processes. Other experiments will investigate whether relations exist between a neuron's selectivity to AM stimuli and its location and/or morphology.