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Published October 26, 2011 | Published
Journal Article Open

Computation of Interaural Time Difference in the Owl's Coincidence Detector Neurons

Abstract

Both the mammalian and avian auditory systems localize sound sources by computing the interaural time difference (ITD) with submillisecond accuracy. The neural circuits for this computation in birds consist of axonal delay lines and coincidence detector neurons. Here, we report the first in vivo intracellular recordings from coincidence detectors in the nucleus laminaris of barn owls. Binaural tonal stimuli induced sustained depolarizations (DC) and oscillating potentials whose waveforms reflected the stimulus. The amplitude of this sound analog potential (SAP) varied with ITD, whereas DC potentials did not. The amplitude of the SAP was correlated with firing rate in a linear fashion. Spike shape, synaptic noise, the amplitude of SAP, and responsiveness to current pulses differed between cells at different frequencies, suggesting an optimization strategy for sensing sound signals in neurons tuned to different frequencies.

Additional Information

© 2011 the authors. For the first six months after publication SfN's license will be exclusive. Beginning six months after publication the Work will be made freely available to the public on SfN's website to copy, distribute, or display under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Received April 28, 2011; revised Aug. 3, 2011; accepted Aug. 25, 2011. This work was supported by NIH Grant DC000134 (M.K.) and a postdoctoral fellowship to study abroad and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (K.F.). We thank José Luis Peña, Alex D. Reyes, Brian J. Fischer, Nace L. Golding, Akiko Momiyama, and Catherine E. Carr for critical readings and comments on this paper. We also thank Kousuke Abe for comments and discussions regarding models, and also thank Shigetada Nakanishi for continuous encouragement and support to complete this paper. Author contributions: K.F. and M.K. designed research; K.F., G.A., and M.K. performed research; K.F. and G.A. analyzed data; K.F., G.A., and M.K. wrote the paper.

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