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Li Y, Zhang J. Binaural advantages in sound temporal information processing by neurons in the rat inferior colliculus. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1308052. [PMID: 38125407 PMCID: PMC10731313 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1308052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous studies on the advantages of binaural hearing have long been focused on sound localization and spatial stream segregation. The binaural advantages have also been observed in speech perception in reverberation. Both human speech and animal vocalizations contain temporal features that are critical for speech perception and animal communication. However, whether there are binaural advantages for sound temporal information processing in the central auditory system has not been elucidated. Gap detection threshold (GDT), the ability to detect the shortest silent interval in a sound, has been widely used to measure the auditory temporal resolution. In the present study, we determined GDTs of rat inferior collicular neurons under both monaural and binaural hearing conditions. We found that the majority of the inferior collicular neurons in adult rats exhibited binaural advantages in gap detection, i.e., better neural gap detection ability in binaural hearing conditions compared to monaural hearing condition. However, this binaural advantage in sound temporal information processing was not significant in the inferior collicular neurons of P14-21 and P22-30 rats. Additionally, we also observed age-related changes in neural temporal acuity in the rat inferior colliculus. These results demonstrate a new advantage of binaural hearing (i.e., binaural advantage in temporal processing) in the central auditory system in addition to sound localization and spatial stream segregation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jiping Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Ministry of Education, NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
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Asim SA, Tran S, Reynolds N, Sauve O, Zhang H. Spatial-dependent suppressive aftereffect produced by a sound in the rat’s inferior colliculus is partially dependent on local inhibition. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1130892. [PMID: 37021140 PMCID: PMC10069703 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1130892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/22/2023] Open
Abstract
In a natural acoustic environment, a preceding sound can suppress the perception of a succeeding sound which can lead to auditory phenomena such as forward masking and the precedence effect. The degree of suppression is dependent on the relationship between the sounds in sound quality, timing, and location. Correlates of such phenomena exist in sound-elicited activities of neurons in hearing-related brain structures. The present study recorded responses to pairs of leading-trailing sounds from ensembles of neurons in the rat’s inferior colliculus. Results indicated that a leading sound produced a suppressive aftereffect on the response to a trailing sound when the two sounds were colocalized at the ear contralateral to the site of recording (i.e., the ear that drives excitatory inputs to the inferior colliculus). The degree of suppression was reduced when the time gap between the two sounds was increased or when the leading sound was relocated to an azimuth at or close to the ipsilateral ear. Local blockage of the type-A γ-aminobutyric acid receptor partially reduced the suppressive aftereffect when a leading sound was at the contralateral ear but not at the ipsilateral ear. Local blockage of the glycine receptor partially reduced the suppressive aftereffect regardless of the location of the leading sound. Results suggest that a sound-elicited suppressive aftereffect in the inferior colliculus is partly dependent on local interaction between excitatory and inhibitory inputs which likely involves those from brainstem structures such as the superior paraolivary nucleus. These results are important for understanding neural mechanisms underlying hearing in a multiple-sound environment.
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Chot MG, Tran S, Zhang H. Spatial Separation between Two Sounds of an Oddball Paradigm Affects Responses of Neurons in the Rat's Inferior Colliculus to the Sounds. Neuroscience 2020; 444:118-135. [PMID: 32712224 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.07.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2018] [Revised: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The ability to sense occasionally occurring sounds in an environment is critical for animals. To understand this ability, we studied responses to acoustic oddball paradigms in the rat's midbrain auditory neurons. An oddball paradigm is a random sequence of stimuli created using two tone bursts, with one presented at a high probability (standard stimulus) and the other at a low probability (oddball stimulus). The sounds were either colocalized at the ear contralateral to a neuron under investigation (c90° azimuth) or separated with one at c90° while the other at another azimuth. We found that most neurons generated stronger responses to a sound at c90° when it was presented as an oddball than as a standard stimulus. Relocating one sound from c90° to another azimuth changed both responses to the relocated sound and the sound that remained at c90°. Most notably, the response to an oddball stimulus at c90° was increased when a standard stimulus was relocated from c90° to a location that was in front of the animal or on the ipsilateral side of recording. The increase was particularly large in neurons that displayed transient firing under contralateral stimulation but no firing under ipsilateral stimulation. These neurons likely play a particularly important role in using spatial cues to detect occasionally occurring sounds. Results suggest that effects of spatial separation between two sounds of an oddball paradigm on responses to the sounds were dependent on changes in the level of adaptation and binaural inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathiang G Chot
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
| | - Sarah Tran
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
| | - Huiming Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
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Sun H, Zhang H, Ross A, Wang TT, Al-Chami A, Wu SH. Developmentally Regulated Rebound Depolarization Enhances Spike Timing Precision in Auditory Midbrain Neurons. Front Cell Neurosci 2020; 14:236. [PMID: 32848625 PMCID: PMC7424072 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2020.00236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The inferior colliculus (IC) is an auditory midbrain structure involved in processing biologically important temporal features of sounds. The responses of IC neurons to these temporal features reflect an interaction of synaptic inputs and neuronal biophysical properties. One striking biophysical property of IC neurons is the rebound depolarization produced following membrane hyperpolarization. To understand how the rebound depolarization is involved in spike timing, we made whole-cell patch clamp recordings from IC neurons in brain slices of P9-21 rats. We found that the percentage of rebound neurons was developmentally regulated. The precision of the timing of the first spike on the rebound increased when the neuron was repetitively injected with a depolarizing current following membrane hyperpolarization. The average jitter of the first spikes was only 0.5 ms. The selective T-type Ca2+ channel antagonist, mibefradil, significantly increased the jitter of the first spike of neurons in response to repetitive depolarization following membrane hyperpolarization. Furthermore, the rebound was potentiated by one to two preceding rebounds within a few hundred milliseconds. The first spike generated on the potentiated rebound was more precise than that on the non-potentiated rebound. With the addition of a calcium chelator, BAPTA, into the cell, the rebound potentiation no longer occurred, and the precision of the first spike on the rebound was not improved. These results suggest that the postinhibitory rebound mediated by T-type Ca2+ channel promotes spike timing precision in IC neurons. The rebound potentiation and precise spikes may be induced by increases in intracellular calcium levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongyu Sun
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Hui Zhang
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Alysia Ross
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Ting Ting Wang
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Aycheh Al-Chami
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Shu Hui Wu
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
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Chot MG, Tran S, Zhang H. Responses of neurons in the rat's inferior colliculus to a sound are affected by another sound in a space-dependent manner. Sci Rep 2019; 9:13938. [PMID: 31558791 PMCID: PMC6763450 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50297-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2018] [Accepted: 09/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The perception of a sound can be influenced by another sound in a space-dependent manner. An understanding of this perceptual phenomenon depends on knowledge about how the spatial relationship between two sounds affects neural responses to the sounds. We used the rat as a model system and equal-probability two-tone sequences as stimuli to evaluate how spatial separation between two asynchronously recurring sounds affected responses to the sounds in midbrain auditory neurons. We found that responses elicited by two tone bursts when they were colocalized at the ear contralateral to the neuron were different from the responses elicited by the same sounds when they were separated with one at the contralateral ear while the other at another location. For neurons with transient sound-driven firing and not responsive to stimulation presented at the ipsilateral ear, the response to a sound with a fixed location at the contralateral ear was enhanced when the second sound was separated. These neurons were likely important for detecting a sound in the presence of a spatially separated competing sound. Our results suggest that mechanisms underlying effects of spatial separation on neural responses to sounds may include adaptation and long-lasting binaural excitatory/inhibitory interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathiang G Chot
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada
| | - Sarah Tran
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada
| | - Huiming Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada.
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Mokri Y, Worland K, Ford M, Rajan R. Effect of background noise on neuronal coding of interaural level difference cues in rat inferior colliculus. Eur J Neurosci 2015; 42:1685-704. [PMID: 25865218 PMCID: PMC4676293 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.12914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2014] [Revised: 03/26/2015] [Accepted: 04/07/2015] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Humans can accurately localize sounds even in unfavourable signal-to-noise conditions. To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying this, we studied the effect of background wide-band noise on neural sensitivity to variations in interaural level difference (ILD), the predominant cue for sound localization in azimuth for high-frequency sounds, at the characteristic frequency of cells in rat inferior colliculus (IC). Binaural noise at high levels generally resulted in suppression of responses (55.8%), but at lower levels resulted in enhancement (34.8%) as well as suppression (30.3%). When recording conditions permitted, we then examined if any binaural noise effects were related to selective noise effects at each of the two ears, which we interpreted in light of well-known differences in input type (excitation and inhibition) from each ear shaping particular forms of ILD sensitivity in the IC. At high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), in most ILD functions (41%), the effect of background noise appeared to be due to effects on inputs from both ears, while for a large percentage (35.8%) appeared to be accounted for by effects on excitatory input. However, as SNR decreased, change in excitation became the dominant contributor to the change due to binaural background noise (63.6%). These novel findings shed light on the IC neural mechanisms for sound localization in the presence of continuous background noise. They also suggest that some effects of background noise on encoding of sound location reported to be emergent in upstream auditory areas can also be observed at the level of the midbrain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yasamin Mokri
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Monash, Vic., 3800, Australia
| | - Kate Worland
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Monash, Vic., 3800, Australia
| | - Mark Ford
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Monash, Vic., 3800, Australia
| | - Ramesh Rajan
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Monash, Vic., 3800, Australia.,Ear Sciences Institute of Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
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