Neuronal coding of communication sounds in the central nucleus of the mouse auditory midbrain (inferior colliculus): time-domain analyses

编码的声音对象的流，如一系列的通信呼叫的动物或音节和单词在人类的语音是哺乳动物的听觉系统的“日常业务”。在人类的心理声学和生理学实验表明，在感知的声学对象和听觉流发生的时间常数接近20，100和400毫秒的转变。这些值在时域中感知的声音改变他们的听觉质量也被发现在家鼠的行为研究，当他们感知和响应自己的通信呼叫。因此，小鼠是一个足够的动物模型，以测试这些时间常数是否发生知觉过渡的一般时间窗口已经在皮层下水平的声音处理，我们知道很少关于编码的听觉对象和流。因此，本电生理实验旨在分析听觉中脑的主要核团（下丘的中央核团）在单个神经元水平和全局水平上编码感知相关时间常数。结果预期的贡献听觉中脑的神经元反应听觉对象的形成在时域和编码的节奏（流的听觉对象）。这些数据是新的，具有普遍的重要性，因为它们直接关系到神经元的处理和编码在中脑的哺乳动物听觉感知的共同属性。

Coding of streams of acoustic objects such as series of communication calls of animals or syllables and words in human speech is the “daily business” of mammalian auditory systems. Psychoacoustical and physiological experiments in humans have shown transitions in the perception of acoustic objects and auditory streams that occur with time constants near 20, 100, and 400 ms. These values in the time domain at which perceived sounds change their auditory quality have been found also in behavioral studies of house mice when they perceive and respond to their own communication calls. Thus, the mouse is an adequate animal model to test whether these time constants occur as general time windows of perceptual transition already at the subcortical level of sound processing, of which we know very little with regard to coding of auditory objects and streams. Hence, the present electrophysiological experiments were designed to analyze the main nucleus of the auditory midbrain (central nucleus of the inferior colliculus) with regard to coding the perceptually relevant time constants at the single neuron level and at the global level. Results are expected about the contribution of neuronal responses in the auditory midbrain to auditory object formation in the time domain and the coding of rhythms (streams of auditory objects). Such data are new and of general importance since they directly relate neuronal processing and coding in the midbrain to common properties of mammalian auditory perception.