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Published December 1, 2001 | Published
Journal Article Open

Cochlear and Neural Delays for Coincidence Detection in Owls

Abstract

The auditory system uses delay lines and coincidence detection to measure the interaural time difference (ITD). Both axons and the cochlea could provide such delays. The stereausis theory assumes that differences in wave propagation time along the basilar membrane can provide the necessary delays, if the coincidence detectors receive input from fibers innervating different loci on the left and right basilar membranes. If this hypothesis were true, the left and right inputs to coincidence detectors should differ in their frequency tuning. The owl's nucleus laminaris contains coincidence detector neurons that receive input from the left and right cochlear nuclei. Monaural frequency-tuning curves of nucleus laminaris neurons showed small interaural differences. In addition, their preferred ITDs were not correlated with the interaural frequency mismatches. Instead, the preferred ITD of the neuron agrees with that predicted from the distribution of axonal delays. Thus, there is no need to invoke mechanisms other than neural delays to explain the detection of ITDs by the barn owl's laminaris neurons.

Additional Information

© 2001 Society for Neuroscience. 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 Jan. 4, 2001; revised Sept. 7, 2001; accepted Sept. 13, 2001. This work was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Grant DC-00134 and by postdoctoral fellowships from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (S.V.) and the Pew Latin American Fellows Program (J.L.P.). We thank Christine Köppl for generously sharing data with us; Yehuda Albeck, Jamie Mazer, Chris Malek, and Ben Arthur for their help with computer programming; Catherine Carr for reviewing an early draft of the manuscript; and Mario Ruggero for discussion about cochlear mechanisms.

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August 21, 2023
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