INTENSITY CODING IN THE AUDITORY PERIPHERY OF THE CAT - RESPONSES OF COCHLEAR NERVE AND COCHLEAR NUCLEUS NEURONS TO SIGNALS IN THE PRESENCE OF BANDSTOP MASKING NOISE
INTENSITY CODING IN THE AUDITORY PERIPHERY OF THE CAT - RESPONSES OF COCHLEAR NERVE AND COCHLEAR NUCLEUS NEURONS TO SIGNALS IN THE PRESENCE OF BANDSTOP MASKING NOISE
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DOI：
10.1016/0378-5955(82)90042-9
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发表时间：
1982-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
EVANS, EF
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
PALMER, AR;EVANS, EF
The dynamic range over which fine intensity discrimination is possible was reported to be largely unaffected by limitation of the spread of neuronal activity to neighboring frequency regions by bandstop noise masking. The responses of cochlear nerve and nucleus neurons to tone and noise signals in the presence of a bandstop masking noise designed to be comparable to that employed in the psychophysical experiments [in humans] was examined [in cats]. Under these conditions, the vast majority of cochlear nerve fibers were saturated by sound levels at which some 50% of the sample of cochlear nucleus neurons still responded to signal level differences. The extended dynamic ranges of these cochlear nucleus neurons were shown to be a result of activation, by the masking noise, of the lateral inhibitory side-bands biasing the neuron''s discharge. A small proportion of cochlear fibers, having low spontaneous discharge rates and showing strong 2-tone suppression effects, demonstrated analogous but not so pronounced effects. It is unclear in what form information on the level of stimuli under these conditions is transmitted by the majority of apparently saturated cochlear nerve fibers, but several possible mechanisms are discussed.
