Medial superior olive in the free-tailed bat: response to pure tones and amplitude-modulated tones

Physiological Diversity Influences Detection of Stimulus Envelope and Fine Structure in Neurons of the Medial Superior Olive

The neurons of the medial superior olive (MSO) of mammals extract azimuthal information from the delays between sounds reaching the two ears [interaural time differences (ITDs)]. Traditionally, all models of sound localization have assumed that MSO neurons represent a single population of cells with specialized and homogeneous intrinsic and synaptic properties that enable the detection of synaptic coincidence on a timescale of tens to hundreds of microseconds. Here, using patch-clamp recordings from large populations of anatomically labeled neurons in brainstem slices from male and female Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), we show that MSO neurons are far more physiologically diverse than previously appreciated, with properties that depend regionally on cell position along the topographic map of frequency. Despite exhibiting a similar morphology, neurons in the MSO exhibit subthreshold oscillations of differing magnitudes that drive action potentials at rates between 100 and 800 Hz. These oscillations are driven primarily by voltage-gated sodium channels and are distinct from resonant properties derived from other active membrane properties. We show that graded differences in these and other physiological properties across the MSO neuron population enable the MSO to duplex the encoding of ITD information in both fast, submillisecond time-varying signals as well as in slower envelopes.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Neurons in the medial superior olive (MSO) encode sound localization cues by detecting microsecond differences in the arrival times of inputs from the left and right ears, and it has been assumed that this computation is made possible by highly stereotyped structural and physiological specializations. Here we report using a large (>400) sample size in which MSO neurons show a strikingly large continuum of functional properties despite exhibiting similar morphologies. We demonstrate that subthreshold oscillations mediated by voltage-gated Na+ channels play a key role in conferring graded differences in firing properties. This functional diversity likely confers capabilities of processing both fast, submillisecond-scale synaptic activity (acoustic "fine structure"), and slow-rising envelope information that is found in amplitude-modulated sounds and speech patterns.

Organization of projection from brainstem auditory nuclei to the inferior colliculus of Japanese house bat (Pipistrellus abramus)

OBJECTIVES

Echolocating bats show remarkable specialization which is related to analysis of echoes of biosonars in subcortical auditory brainstem pathways. The inferior colliculus (IC) receives inputs from all lower brainstem auditory nuclei, i.e., cochlear nuclei, nuclei of the lateral lemniscus, and superior olivary complex, and create de novo responses to sound, which is considered crucial for echolocation. Inside the central nucleus of the IC (ICC), small domains which receive specific combination of extrinsic inputs are the basis of integration of sound information. In addition to extrinsic inputs, each domain is interconnected by local IC neurons but the cell types related to the interconnection are not well-understood. The primary objective of the current study is to examine whether the ascending inputs are reorganized and terminate in microdomains inside the ICC.

METHODS

We made injection of a retrograde tracer into different parts of the ICC, and analyzed distribution of retrogradely labeled cells in the auditory brainstem of Japanese house bat (Pipistrellus abramus).

RESULTS

Pattern of ascending projections from brainstem nuclei was similar to other bat species. Percentages of labeled cells in several nuclei were correlated each other. Furthermore, within the IC, we identified that large GABAergic (LG) and glutamatergic neurons made long-range connection.

CONCLUSIONS

Synaptic organization of IC of Japanese house bat shows specialization which is likely to relate for echolocation. Input nuclei to the IC make clusters which terminate in specific part of the ICC, implying the presence of microdomains. LG neurons have roles for binding IC microdomains.

Physiology and anatomy of neurons in the medial superior olive of the mouse

In mammals with good low-frequency hearing, the medial superior olive (MSO) computes sound location by comparing differences in the arrival time of a sound at each ear, called interaural time disparities (ITDs). Low-frequency sounds are not reflected by the head, and therefore level differences and spectral cues are minimal or absent, leaving ITDs as the only cue for sound localization. Although mammals with high-frequency hearing and small heads (e.g., bats, mice) barely experience ITDs, the MSO is still present in these animals. Yet, aside from studies in specialized bats, in which the MSO appears to serve functions other than ITD processing, it has not been studied in small mammals that do not hear low frequencies. Here we describe neurons in the mouse brain stem that share prominent anatomical, morphological, and physiological properties with the MSO in species known to use ITDs for sound localization. However, these neurons also deviate in some important aspects from the typical MSO, including a less refined arrangement of cell bodies, dendrites, and synaptic inputs. In vitro, the vast majority of neurons exhibited a single, onset action potential in response to suprathreshold depolarization. This spiking pattern is typical of MSO neurons in other species and is generated from a complement of K_v1, K_v3, and I_H currents. In vivo, mouse MSO neurons show bilateral excitatory and inhibitory tuning as well as an improvement in temporal acuity of spiking during bilateral acoustic stimulation. The combination of classical MSO features like those observed in gerbils with more unique features similar to those observed in bats and opossums make the mouse MSO an interesting model for exploiting genetic tools to test hypotheses about the molecular mechanisms and evolution of ITD processing.

Structural Changes and Lack of HCN1 Channels in the Binaural Auditory Brainstem of the Naked Mole-Rat (Heterocephalus glaber)

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) live in large eu-social, underground colonies in narrow burrows and are exposed to a large repertoire of communication signals but negligible binaural sound localization cues, such as interaural time and intensity differences. We therefore asked whether monaural and binaural auditory brainstem nuclei in the naked mole-rat are differentially adjusted to this acoustic environment. Using antibody stainings against excitatory and inhibitory presynaptic structures, namely the vesicular glutamate transporter VGluT1 and the glycine transporter GlyT2 we identified all major auditory brainstem nuclei except the superior paraolivary nucleus in these animals. Naked mole-rats possess a well structured medial superior olive, with a similar synaptic arrangement to interaural-time-difference encoding animals. The neighboring lateral superior olive, which analyzes interaural intensity differences, is large and elongated, whereas the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body, which provides the contralateral inhibitory input to these binaural nuclei, is reduced in size. In contrast, the cochlear nucleus, the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus and the inferior colliculus are not considerably different when compared to other rodent species. Most interestingly, binaural auditory brainstem nuclei lack the membrane-bound hyperpolarization-activated channel HCN1, a voltage-gated ion channel that greatly contributes to the fast integration times in binaural nuclei of the superior olivary complex in other species. This suggests substantially lengthened membrane time constants and thus prolonged temporal integration of inputs in binaural auditory brainstem neurons and might be linked to the severely degenerated sound localization abilities in these animals.

Speech Coding in the Brain: Representation of Vowel Formants by Midbrain Neurons Tuned to Sound Fluctuations

Current models for neural coding of vowels are typically based on linear descriptions of the auditory periphery, and fail at high sound levels and in background noise. These models rely on either auditory nerve discharge rates or phase locking to temporal fine structure. However, both discharge rates and phase locking saturate at moderate to high sound levels, and phase locking is degraded in the CNS at middle to high frequencies. The fact that speech intelligibility is robust over a wide range of sound levels is problematic for codes that deteriorate as the sound level increases. Additionally, a successful neural code must function for speech in background noise at levels that are tolerated by listeners. The model presented here resolves these problems, and incorporates several key response properties of the nonlinear auditory periphery, including saturation, synchrony capture, and phase locking to both fine structure and envelope temporal features. The model also includes the properties of the auditory midbrain, where discharge rates are tuned to amplitude fluctuation rates. The nonlinear peripheral response features create contrasts in the amplitudes of low-frequency neural rate fluctuations across the population. These patterns of fluctuations result in a response profile in the midbrain that encodes vowel formants over a wide range of levels and in background noise. The hypothesized code is supported by electrophysiological recordings from the inferior colliculus of awake rabbits. This model provides information for understanding the structure of cross-linguistic vowel spaces, and suggests strategies for automatic formant detection and speech enhancement for listeners with hearing loss.

A computational model of inferior colliculus responses to amplitude modulated sounds in young and aged rats

The inferior colliculus (IC) receives ascending excitatory and inhibitory inputs from multiple sources, but how these auditory inputs converge to generate IC spike patterns is poorly understood. Simulating patterns of in vivo spike train data from cellular and synaptic models creates a powerful framework to identify factors that contribute to changes in IC responses, such as those resulting in age-related loss of temporal processing. A conductance-based single neuron IC model was constructed, and its responses were compared to those observed during in vivo IC recordings in rats. IC spike patterns were evoked using amplitude-modulated tone or noise carriers at 20–40 dB above threshold and were classified as low-pass, band-pass, band-reject, all-pass, or complex based on their rate modulation transfer function tuning shape. Their temporal modulation transfer functions were also measured. These spike patterns provided experimental measures of rate, vector strength, and firing pattern for comparison with model outputs. Patterns of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic convergence to IC neurons were based on anatomical studies and generalized input tuning for modulation frequency. Responses of modeled ascending inputs were derived from experimental data from previous studies. Adapting and sustained IC intrinsic models were created, with adaptation created via calcium-activated potassium currents. Short-term synaptic plasticity was incorporated into the model in the form of synaptic depression, which was shown to have a substantial effect on the magnitude and time course of the IC response. The most commonly observed IC response sub-types were recreated and enabled dissociation of inherited response properties from those that were generated in IC. Furthermore, the model was used to make predictions about the consequences of reduction in inhibition for age-related loss of temporal processing due to a reduction in GABA seen anatomically with age.

Duration tuning across vertebrates

Signal duration is important for identifying sound sources and determining signal meaning. Duration-tuned neurons (DTNs) respond preferentially to a range of stimulus durations and maximally to a best duration (BD). Duration-tuned neurons are found in the auditory midbrain of many vertebrates, although studied most extensively in bats. Studies of DTNs across vertebrates have identified cells with BDs and temporal response bandwidths that mirror the range of species-specific vocalizations. Neural tuning to stimulus duration appears to be universal among hearing vertebrates. Herein, we test the hypothesis that neural mechanisms underlying duration selectivity may be similar across vertebrates. We instantiated theoretical mechanisms of duration tuning in computational models to systematically explore the roles of excitatory and inhibitory receptor strengths, input latencies, and membrane time constant on duration tuning response profiles. We demonstrate that models of duration tuning with similar neural circuitry can be tuned with species-specific parameters to reproduce the responses of in vivo DTNs from the auditory midbrain. To relate and validate model output to in vivo responses, we collected electrophysiological data from the inferior colliculus of the awake big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, and present similar in vivo data from the published literature on DTNs in rats, mice, and frogs. Our results support the hypothesis that neural mechanisms of duration tuning may be shared across vertebrates despite species-specific differences in duration selectivity. Finally, we discuss how the underlying mechanisms of duration selectivity relate to other auditory feature detectors arising from the interaction of neural excitation and inhibition.

Factors controlling the input-output relationship of spherical bushy cells in the gerbil cochlear nucleus

Despite the presence of large endbulb inputs, the spherical bushy cells (SBCs) of the rostral anteroventral cochlear nucleus do not function as simple auditory relays. We used the good signal-to-noise ratio of juxtacellular recordings to dissect the intrinsic and network mechanisms controlling the input-output relationship of SBCs in anesthetized gerbils. The SBCs generally operated close to action potential (AP) threshold and showed no evidence for synaptic depression, suggesting that the endbulbs of Held have low release probability in vivo. Analysis of the complex waveforms suggested that in the absence of auditory stimulation, postsynaptic spike depression and stochastic fluctuations in EPSP size were the main factors determining jitter and reliability of the endbulb synapse. During auditory stimulation, progressively larger EPSPs were needed to trigger APs at increasing sound intensities. Simulations suggested hyperpolarizing inhibition could explain the observed decrease in EPSP efficacy. Synaptic inhibition showed a delayed onset and generally had a higher threshold than excitatory inputs, but otherwise inhibition and excitation showed mostly overlapping frequency-response areas. The recruitment of synaptic inhibition caused postsynaptic spikes to be preferentially triggered by well-timed, large EPSPs, resulting in improved phase locking despite more variable EPSP-AP latencies. Our results suggest that the lack of synaptic depression, caused by low release probability, and the apparent absence of sound-evoked synaptic inhibition at low sound intensity maximize sensitivity of SBCs. At higher sound intensities, the recruitment of synaptic inhibition constrains their firing rate and optimizes their temporal precision.

Duration tuning in the auditory midbrain of echolocating and non-echolocating vertebrates

Neurons tuned for stimulus duration were first discovered in the auditory midbrain of frogs. Duration-tuned neurons (DTNs) have since been reported from the central auditory system of both echolocating and non-echolocating mammals, and from the central visual system of cats. We hypothesize that the functional significance of auditory duration tuning likely varies between species with different evolutionary histories, sensory ecologies, and bioacoustic constraints. For example, in non-echolocating animals such as frogs and mice the temporal filtering properties of auditory DTNs may function to discriminate species-specific communication sounds. In echolocating bats duration tuning may also be used to create cells with highly selective responses for specific rates of frequency modulation and/or pulse-echo delays. The ability to echolocate appears to have selected for high temporal acuity in the duration tuning curves of inferior colliculus neurons in bats. Our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying sound duration selectivity has improved substantially since DTNs were first discovered almost 50 years ago, but additional research is required for a comprehensive understanding of the functional role and the behavioral significance that duration tuning plays in sensory systems.

Functional role of GABAergic and glycinergic inhibition in the intermediate nucleus of the lateral lemniscus of the big brown bat

The intermediate nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (INLL) is a major input to the inferior colliculus (IC), the auditory midbrain center where multiple pathways converge to create neurons selective for specific temporal features of sound. However, little is known about how INLL processes auditory information or how it contributes to integrative processes at the IC. INLL receives excitatory projections from the cochlear nucleus and inhibitory projections from the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), so it must perform some form of integration. To address the question of what role inhibitory synaptic inputs play in the INLL of the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), we recorded sound-evoked responses of single neurons and iontophoretically applied bicuculline to block GABA(A) receptors or strychnine to block glycine receptors. Neither bicuculline nor strychnine had a consistent effect on response latency or frequency response areas. Bicuculline increased spike counts and response durations in most units, suggesting that GABAergic input suppressed the late part of the response and provided some gain control. Strychnine reduced the responses of some units with sustained discharge patterns to one or a few spikes at stimulus onset, but increased others. INLL is the only part of the auditory system where reduced responsiveness has been seen in vivo while blocking glycine. However, in vitro studies in the MNTB suggest that glycine can be facilitatory, possibly through presynaptic action. These results show that GABA consistently reduces spike counts and response durations, whereas glycine is suppressive in some INLL neurons but facilitatory in others.

Auditory temporal resolution of a wild white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris)

Adequate temporal resolution is required across taxa to properly utilize amplitude modulated acoustic signals. Among mammals, odontocete marine mammals are considered to have relatively high temporal resolution, which is a selective advantage when processing fast traveling underwater sound. However, multiple methods used to estimate auditory temporal resolution have left comparisons among odontocetes and other mammals somewhat vague. Here we present the estimated auditory temporal resolution of an adult male white-beaked dolphin, (Lagenorhynchus albirostris), using auditory evoked potentials and click stimuli. Ours is the first of such studies performed on a wild dolphin in a capture-and-release scenario. The white-beaked dolphin followed rhythmic clicks up to a rate of approximately 1,125-1,250 Hz, after which the modulation rate transfer function (MRTF) cut-off steeply. However, 10% of the maximum response was still found at 1,450 Hz indicating high temporal resolution. The MRTF was similar in shape and bandwidth to that of other odontocetes. The estimated maximal temporal resolution of white-beaked dolphins and other odontocetes was approximately twice that of pinnipeds and manatees, and more than ten-times faster than humans and gerbils. The exceptionally high temporal resolution abilities of odontocetes are likely due primarily to echolocation capabilities that require rapid processing of acoustic cues.

An autocorrelation model of bat sonar

Their sonar system allows echolocating bats to navigate with high skill through a complex, three- dimensional environment at high speed and low light. The auditory analysis of the echoes of their ultrasonic sounds requires a detailed comparison of the emission and echoes. Here an auditory model of bat sonar is introduced and evaluated against a set of psychophysical phantom-target, echo-acoustic experiments. The model consists of a relatively detailed simulation of auditory peripheral processing in the bat, Phyllostomus discolor, followed by a functional module consisting of a strobed, normalised, autocorrelation in each frequency channel. The model output is accumulated in a sonar image buffer. The model evaluation is based on the comparison of the image-buffer contents generated in individually simulated psychophysical trials. The model provides reasonably good predictions for both temporal and spectral behavioural sonar processing in terms of sonar delay-, roughness, and phase sensitivity and in terms of sensitivity to the temporal separations in two-front targets and the classification of spectrally divergent phantom targets.

Responses of Neurons in the Rat's Ventral Nucleus of the Lateral Lemniscus to Amplitude-Modulated Tones

Recordings were made from single neurons in the rat's ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL) to determine responses to amplitude-modulated (AM) tones. The neurons were first characterized on the basis of their response to tone bursts presented to the contralateral ear and a distinction was made between those with transient onset responses and those with sustained responses. Sinusoidal AM tones were then presented to the contralateral ear with a carrier that matched the neuron's characteristic frequency (CF). Modulation transfer functions were generated on the basis of firing rate (MTFFR) and vector strength (MTFVS). Ninety-two percent of onset neurons that responded continuously to AM tones had band-pass MTFFRs with best modulation frequencies from 10 to 300 Hz. Fifty-four percent of sustained neurons had band-pass MTFFRs with best modulation frequencies from 10 to 500 Hz; other neurons had band-suppressed, all-pass, low-pass, or high-pass functions. Most neurons showed either band-pass or low-pass MTFVS. Responses were well synchronized to the modulation cycle with maximum vector strengths ranging from 0.37 to 0.98 for sustained neurons and 0.78 to 0.99 for onset neurons. The upper frequency limit for response synchrony was higher than that reported for inferior colliculus, but lower than that seen in more peripheral structures. Results suggest that VNLL neurons, especially those with onset responses to tone bursts, are sensitive to temporal features of sounds and narrowly tuned to different modulation rates. However, there was no evidence of a topographic relation between dorsoventral position along the length of VNLL and best modulation frequency as determined by either firing rate or vector strength.

Phase locking of auditory-nerve fibers to the envelopes of high-frequency sounds: implications for sound localization

Although listeners are sensitive to interaural time differences (ITDs) in the envelope of high-frequency sounds, both ITD discrimination performance and the extent of lateralization are poorer for high-frequency sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (SAM) tones than for low-frequency pure tones. Psychophysical studies have shown that ITD discrimination at high frequencies can be improved by using novel transposed-tone stimuli, formed by modulating a high-frequency carrier by a half-wave-rectified sinusoid. Transposed tones are designed to produce the same temporal discharge patterns in high-characteristic frequency (CF) neurons as occur in low-CF neurons for pure-tone stimuli. To directly test this hypothesis, we compared responses of auditory-nerve fibers in anesthetized cats to pure tones, SAM tones, and transposed tones. Phase locking was characterized using both the synchronization index and autocorrelograms. With both measures, phase locking was better for transposed tones than for SAM tones, consistent with the rationale for using transposed tones. However, phase locking to transposed tones and that to pure tones were comparable only when all three conditions were met: stimulus levels near thresholds, low modulation frequencies (<250 Hz), and low spontaneous discharge rates. In particular, phase locking to both SAM tones and transposed tones substantially degraded with increasing stimulus level, while remaining more stable for pure tones. These results suggest caution in assuming a close similarity between temporal patterns of peripheral activity produced by transposed tones and pure tones in both psychophysical studies and neurophysiological studies of central neurons.

Serotonin shifts first-spike latencies of inferior colliculus neurons

Many studies of neuromodulators have focused on changes in the magnitudes of neural responses, but fewer studies have examined neuromodulator effects on response latency. Across sensory systems, response latency is important for encoding not only the temporal structure but also the identity of stimuli. In the auditory system, latency is a fundamental response property that varies with many features of sound, including intensity, frequency, and duration. To determine the extent of neuromodulatory regulation of latency within the inferior colliculus (IC), a midbrain auditory nexus, the effects of iontophoretically applied serotonin on first-spike latencies were characterized in the IC of the Mexican free-tailed bat. Serotonin significantly altered the first-spike latencies in response to tones in 24% of IC neurons, usually increasing, but sometimes decreasing, latency. Serotonin-evoked changes in latency and spike count were not always correlated but sometimes occurred independently within individual neurons. Furthermore, in some neurons, the size of serotonin-evoked latency shifts depended on the frequency or intensity of the stimulus, as reported previously for serotonin-evoked changes in spike count. These results support the general conclusion that changes in latency are an important part of the neuromodulatory repertoire of serotonin within the auditory system and show that serotonin can change latency either in conjunction with broad changes in other aspects of neuronal excitability or in highly specific ways.

Serotonin modulates responses to species-specific vocalizations in the inferior colliculus

Neuromodulators such as serotonin are capable of altering the neural processing of stimuli across many sensory modalities. In the inferior colliculus, a major midbrain auditory gateway, serotonin alters the way that individual neurons respond to simple tone bursts and linear frequency modulated sweeps. The effects of serotonin are complex, and vary among neurons. How serotonin transforms the responses to spectrotemporally complex sounds of the type normally heard in natural settings has been poorly examined. To explore this issue further, the effects of iontophoretically applied serotonin on the responses of individual inferior colliculus neurons to a variety of recorded species-specific vocalizations were examined. These experiments were performed in the Mexican free-tailed bat, a species that uses a rich repertoire of vocalizations for the purposes of communication as well as echolocation. Serotonin frequently changed the number of recorded calls that were capable of evoking a response from individual neurons, sometimes increasing (15% of serotonin-responsive neurons), but usually decreasing (62% of serotonin-responsive neurons), this number. A functional consequence of these serotonin-evoked changes would be to change the population response to species-specific vocalizations.

Neurobiological specializations in echolocating bats

Although the bat's nervous system follows the general mammalian plan in both its structure and function, it has undergone a number of modifications associated with flight and echolocation. The most obvious neuroanatomical specializations are seen in the cochleas of certain species of bats and in the lower brainstem auditory pathways of all microchiroptera. This article is a review of peripheral and central auditory neuroanatomical specializations in echolocating bats. Findings show that although the structural features of the central nervous system of echolocating microchiropteran bats are basically the same as those of more generalized mammals, certain pathways, mainly those having to do with accurate processing of temporal information and auditory control of motor activity, are hypertrophied and/or organized somewhat differently from those same pathways in nonecholocating species. Through the resulting changes in strengths and timing of synaptic inputs to neurons in these pathways, bats have optimized the mechanisms for analysis of complex sound patterns to derive accurate information about objects in their environment and direct behavior toward those objects.

Interaural Level Difference Processing in the Lateral Superior Olive and the Inferior Colliculus

Interaural level differences (ILDs) provide salient cues for localizing high-frequency sounds in space, and populations of neurons that are sensitive to ILDs are found at almost every synaptic level from brain stem to cortex. These cells are predominantly excited by stimulation of one ear and predominantly inhibited by stimulation of the other ear, such that the magnitude of their response is determined in large part by the intensities at the 2 ears. However, in many cases ILD sensitivity is also influenced by overall intensity, which challenges the idea of unambiguous ILD coding. We investigated whether ambiguity is reduced from one synaptic level to another for 2 centers in the so-called ILD processing pathway. We recorded from single cells in the free-tailed bat lateral superior olive (LSO), the first station where ILDs are coded, and the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC), which receives a strong projection from the LSO, as well as convergent projections from many other auditory centers. We assessed effects of overall intensity by comparing ILD functions generated with different fixed intensities to the excitatory ear. LSO cells were characterized by functions that shifted in a systematic manner with increasing intensity to the excitatory ear. In contrast, significantly more ICC cells had functions that were stable across overall sound intensity, indicating that hierarchical transformations increase stability. Furthermore, a population analysis based on proportion of active cells indicated that stability in the ICC was greatly enhanced when overall population activity was considered.

Sodium along with low-threshold potassium currents enhance coincidence detection of subthreshold noisy signals in MSO neurons

Voltage-dependent membrane conductances support specific neurophysiological properties. To investigate the mechanisms of coincidence detection, we activated gerbil medial superior olivary (MSO) neurons with dynamic current-clamp stimuli in vitro. Spike-triggered reverse-correlation analysis for injected current was used to evaluate the integration of subthreshold noisy signals. Consistent with previous reports, the partial blockade of low-threshold potassium channels (I(KLT)) reduced coincidence detection by slowing the rise of current needed on average to evoke a spike. However, two factors point toward the involvement of a second mechanism. First, the reverse correlation currents revealed that spike generation was associated with a preceding hyperpolarization. Second, rebound action potentials are 45% larger compared to depolarization-evoked spikes in the presence of an I(KLT) antagonist. These observations suggest that the sodium current (I(Na)) was substantially inactivated at rest. To test this idea, I(Na) was enhanced by increasing extracellular sodium concentration. This manipulation reduced coincidence detection, as reflected by slower spike-triggering current, and diminished the hyperpolarization phase in the reverse-correlation currents. As expected, a small outward bias current decreased the pre-spike hyperpolarization phase, and TTX blockade of I(Na) nearly eliminated the hyperpolarization phase in the reverse correlation current. A computer model including Hodgkin-Huxley type conductances for spike generation and for I(KLT) showed reduction in coincidence detection when I(KLT) was reduced or when I(Na) was increased. We hypothesize that desirable synaptic signals first remove some inactivation of I(Na) and reduce activation of I(KLT) to create a brief temporal window for coincidence detection of subthreshold noisy signals.

Expression of the Kv1.1 ion channel subunit in the auditory brainstem of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus

Voltage-gated potassium channels play an important role in shaping membrane properties that underlie neurons' discharge patterns and the ways in which they transform their input. In the auditory system, low threshold potassium currents such as those created by Kv1.1 subunits contribute to precise phaselocking and to transient onset responses that provide time markers for temporal features of sounds. The purpose of the present study was to compare information about the distribution of neurons expressing the KV 1.1 in the brainstem auditory nuclei with the distribution of neurons with known functional properties in the auditory system of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. We used immunocytochemistry and light microscopy to look at the distribution of Kv1.1 subunits in the brainstem auditory nuclei. There was prominent expression in cell types known to contain high levels of Kv1.1 in other species and known to respond to auditory signals with high temporal precision. These included octopus cells and spherical bushy cells of the cochlear nucleus and principal neurons of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body. In addition, we found high levels of Kv1.1 in neurons of the columnar subdivision of the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus and in ventral periolivary cell groups. Neurons with high levels of Kv1.1 were differentially distributed in the intermediate nucleus of the lateral lemniscus and in the inferior colliculus, suggesting that these structures contain functionally distinct cell populations, some of which may be involved in high-precision temporal processing.

Glutamatergic and GABAergic regulation of neural responses in inferior colliculus to amplitude-modulated sounds

Recordings were made from single neurons in the rat inferior colliculus in response to sinusoidally amplitude-modulated sounds (10-s duration) presented to the contralateral ear. Neural responses were determined for different rates of modulation (0.5 Hz to 1 kHz) at a depth of 100%, and modulation transfer functions were generated based on firing rate (MTFFR) and vector strength (MTFVS). The effects of AMPA, NMDA, and GABAA receptor antagonists were examined by releasing drugs iontophoretically through a multibarrel pipette attached to a single-barrel recording pipette. Both the AMPA receptor antagonist, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6-nitro-2,3-dioxo-benzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide disodium (NBQX), and the NMDA receptor antagonist, (+/-)-3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)-propyl-1-phosphonic acid (CPP) resulted in a decrease in firing rate, and the GABAA receptor antagonist, bicuculline, produced an increase in the firing rate in most of the cells examined. In some cases, the shape of the MTFFR was modified slightly by receptor antagonists, but in most cases, the peak firing rate that determined a neuron's best modulation frequency remained the same. Also there were no changes during delivery of either excitatory or inhibitory antagonists in the maximum response synchrony at the peak of the MTFVS although some changes were noticed at off-peak modulation rates particularly with the AMPA receptor antagonist, NBQX.

Age-related alterations in the neural coding of envelope periodicities

This research was guided by the working hypothesis that the aging auditory system progressively loses its ability to process rapid acoustic transients efficiently, and in elderly listeners, this results in difficulties in speech perception. Neural correlates of age-related deficits in temporal processing were investigated by recording from inferior colliculus (IC) neurons from young adult and old CBA mice. Single-unit responses were recorded to sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (SAM) noise carriers, presented at 65-80 dB SPL, having modulation frequencies (MFs) that ranged from 10 to 800 Hz. Because phasic-type temporal response patterns dominate responses to tone and noise in mammalian IC, we limited our analyses to only phasic units. Modulation transfer functions (MTF) for both rate (rMTF) and synchronization (sMTF) measures were used to derive respective best modulation frequencies (rBMF and sBMF). The main age-related finding was that there was an overall increase in response rate to SAM noise carriers and a decrease in the median upper cutoff frequency in units from old mice. At rBMF, the median spike count from units from old animals was 1.63 times greater, and at the sBMF, the median spike count was 2.29 times greater than the young adult sample. We explored whether the increase in driven activity was due to a change in the transient (first cycle response) or periodic (remaining response) component of the response to SAM noise. Median spike counts of the transient component decreased with increasing MF for both young adult and old units, with median counts consistently greater in the old sample as compared with young. Median spike counts for the periodic response remained relatively constant as a function of MF; however, there was a significantly greater (3 times) response for older units in a restricted range of MFs. The greater median spike counts found for the transient and periodic response was also evident when we analyzed the cycle-by-cycle response. The magnitude of the differences between the young adult and the old spike median responses was greatest at low MFs and then declined as MF increased. Finally, the young adult distribution of rBMFs extends to higher MFs than the old, with 36.0% of units having rBMFs >100 Hz as compared with only 12.5% of the old unit sample. We postulate that this age-related difference in rate coding of SAM noise carriers is consistent with a loss, or imbalance, of excitatory and inhibitory neural mechanisms known to shape encoding of envelope periodicities in the IC.

Auditory response properties in the superior paraolivary nucleus of the gerbil

The ascending auditory pathway is characterized by parallel processing. At the brain stem level, several structures are involved that are known to serve different well-defined functions. However, the function of one prominent brain stem nucleus, the rodent superior paraolivary nucleus (SPN) and its putative homologue in other mammals, the dorsomedial periolivary nucleus, is unknown. Based on extracellular recordings from anesthetized gerbils, we tested the role of the SPN in sound localization and temporal processing. First, the existence of binaural inputs indicates that the SPN might be involved in sound localization. Although almost half of the neurons exhibited binaural interactions (most of them excited from both sides), effects of interaural time and intensity differences (ITD; IID) were weak and ambiguous. Thus a straightforward function of SPN in sound localization appears to be implausible. Second, inputs from octopus and multipolar/stellate cells of the cochlear nucleus and from principal cells of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body could relate to precise temporal processing in the SPN. Based on discharge types, two subpopulations of SPN cells were observed: about 60% of the neurons responded to pure tones with sustained discharges, with irregular spike patterns and no phase-locking. Only four neurons showed a regular spike pattern ("chopping"). About 40% of the neurons responded with phasic ON or OFF discharges. Average first spike latency observed in neurons with sustained discharges was significantly shorter than that of ON responders, but had a considerably higher trial-to-trial variation ("jitter"). A subpopulation of ON responders showed a jitter of less than +/-0.1 ms. Most neurons (66%) responded to sinusoidally amplitude-modulated sounds (SAM) with an ongoing response, phase-locked to the stimulus envelope. Again, ON responders showed a significantly higher temporal precision in the phase-locked discharge compared with the sustained responders. High variability was observed among spike-rate-based modulation transfer functions. Histologically, a massive concentration of cytochemical markers for glycinergic input to SPN cells was demonstrated. Application of glycine or its blockade revealed profound effects of glycinergic inhibition on the auditory responses of SPN neurons. The existence of at least two subpopulations of neurons is in line with different subsets of SPN cells that can be distinguished morphologically. One temporally less precise population might modulate the processing of its target structures by providing a rather diffuse inhibition. In contrast, precise ON responders might provide a short, initial inhibitory pulse to its targets.

Precise inhibition is essential for microsecond interaural time difference coding

Microsecond differences in the arrival time of a sound at the two ears (interaural time differences, ITDs) are the main cue for localizing low-frequency sounds in space. Traditionally, ITDs are thought to be encoded by an array of coincidence-detector neurons, receiving excitatory inputs from the two ears via axons of variable length ('delay lines'), to create a topographic map of azimuthal auditory space. Compelling evidence for the existence of such a map in the mammalian lTD detector, the medial superior olive (MSO), however, is lacking. Equally puzzling is the role of a--temporally very precise glycine--mediated inhibitory input to MSO neurons. Using in vivo recordings from the MSO of the Mongolian gerbil, we found the responses of ITD-sensitive neurons to be inconsistent with the idea of a topographic map of auditory space. Moreover, local application of glycine and its antagonist strychnine by iontophoresis (through glass pipette electrodes, by means of an electric current) revealed that precisely timed glycine-controlled inhibition is a critical part of the mechanism by which the physiologically relevant range of ITDs is encoded in the MSO. A computer model, simulating the response of a coincidence-detector neuron with bilateral excitatory inputs and a temporally precise contralateral inhibitory input, supports this conclusion.

How spiking neurons give rise to a temporal-feature map: from synaptic plasticity to axonal selection

A temporal-feature map is a topographic neuronal representation of temporal attributes of phenomena or objects that occur in the outside world. We explain the evolution of such maps by means of a spike-based Hebbian learning rule in conjunction with a presynaptically unspecific contribution in that, if a synapse changes, then all other synapses connected to the same axon change by a small fraction as well. The learning equation is solved for the case of an array of Poisson neurons. We discuss the evolution of a temporal-feature map and the synchronization of the single cells' synaptic structures, in dependence upon the strength of presynaptic unspecific learning. We also give an upper bound for the magnitude of the presynaptic interaction by estimating its impact on the noise level of synaptic growth. Finally, we compare the results with those obtained from a learning equation for nonlinear neurons and show that synaptic structure formation may profit from the nonlinearity.

Motion processing in the auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat: role of GABAergic inhibition

This study examined the influence of inhibition on motion-direction-sensitive responses of neurons in the dorsal fields of auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat. Responses to auditory apparent motion stimuli were recorded extracellularly from neurons while microiontophoretically applying gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline methiodide (BMI). Neurons could respond with a directional preference exhibiting stronger responses to one direction of motion or a shift of receptive field (RF) borders depending on direction of motion. BMI influenced the motion direction sensitivity of 53% of neurons. In 21% of neurons the motion-direction sensitivity was decreased by BMI by decreasing either directional preference or RF shift. In neurons with a directional preference, BMI increased the spike number for the preferred direction by a similar amount as for the nonpreferred direction. Thus, inhibition was not direction specific. BMI increased motion-direction sensitivity by either increasing directional preference or magnitude of RF shifts in 22% of neurons. Ten percent of neurons changed their response from a RF shift to a directional preference under BMI. In these neurons, the observed effects could often be better explained by adaptation of excitation rather than inhibition. The results suggest, that adaptation of excitation, as well as cortex specific GABAergic inhibition, contribute to motion-direction sensitivity in the auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat.

Medial superior olive of the big brown bat: neuronal responses to pure tones, amplitude modulations, and pulse trains

The structure and function of the medial superior olive (MSO) is highly variable among mammals. In species with large heads and low-frequency hearing, MSO is adapted for processing interaural time differences. In some species with small heads and high-frequency hearing, the MSO is greatly reduced in size; in others, including those echolocating bats that have been examined, the MSO is large. Moreover, the MSO of bats appears to have undergone different functional specializations depending on the type of echolocation call used. The echolocation call of the mustached bat contains a prominent CF component, and its MSO is predominantly monaural; the free-tailed bat uses pure frequency-modulated calls, and its MSO is predominantly binaural. To further explore the relation of call structure to MSO properties, we recorded extracellularly from 97 single neurons in the MSO of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, a species whose echolocation call is intermediate between that of the mustached bat and the free-tailed bat. The best frequencies of MSO neurons in the big brown bat ranged from 11 to 79 kHz, spanning most of the audible range. Half of the neurons were monaural, excited by sound at the contralateral ear, while the other half showed evidence of binaural interactions, supporting the idea that the binaural characteristics of MSO neurons in the big brown bat are midway between those of the mustached bat and the free-tailed bat. Within the population of binaural neurons, the majority were excited by sound at the contralateral ear and inhibited by sound at the ipsilateral ear; only 21% were excited by sound at either ear. Discharge patterns were characterized as transient ON (37%), primary-like (33%), or transient OFF (23%). When presented with sinusoidally amplitude modulated tones, most neurons had low-pass filter characteristics with cutoffs between 100 and 300 Hz modulation frequency. For comparison with the sinusoidally modulated sounds, we presented trains of tone pips in which the pulse duration and interstimulus interval were varied. The results of these experiments indicated that it is not the modulation frequency but rather the interstimulus interval that determines the low-pass filter characteristics of MSO neurons.

Subcortical neural coding mechanisms for auditory temporal processing

Biologically relevant sounds such as speech, animal vocalizations and music have distinguishing temporal features that are utilized for effective auditory perception. Common temporal features include sound envelope fluctuations, often modeled in the laboratory by amplitude modulation (AM), and starts and stops in ongoing sounds, which are frequently approximated by hearing researchers as gaps between two sounds or are investigated in forward masking experiments. The auditory system has evolved many neural processing mechanisms for encoding important temporal features of sound. Due to rapid progress made in the field of auditory neuroscience in the past three decades, it is not possible to review all progress in this field in a single article. The goal of the present report is to focus on single-unit mechanisms in the mammalian brainstem auditory system for encoding AM and gaps as illustrative examples of how the system encodes key temporal features of sound. This report, following a systems analysis approach, starts with findings in the auditory nerve and proceeds centrally through the cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complex and inferior colliculus. Some general principles can be seen when reviewing this entire field. For example, as one ascends the central auditory system, a neural encoding shift occurs. An emphasis on synchronous responses for temporal coding exists in the auditory periphery, and more reliance on rate coding occurs as one moves centrally. In addition, for AM, modulation transfer functions become more bandpass as the sound level of the signal is raised, but become more lowpass in shape as background noise is added. In many cases, AM coding can actually increase in the presence of background noise. For gap processing or forward masking, coding for gaps changes from a decrease in spike firing rate for neurons of the peripheral auditory system that have sustained response patterns, to an increase in firing rate for more central neurons with transient responses. Lastly, for gaps and forward masking, as one ascends the auditory system, some suppression effects become quite long (echo suppression), and in some stimulus configurations enhancement to a second sound can take place.

Serotonin effects on frequency tuning of inferior colliculus neurons

We investigated the modulatory effects of serotonin on the tuning of 114 neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICc) of Mexican free-tailed bats and how serotonin-induced changes in tuning influenced responses to complex signals. We obtained a "response area" for each neuron, defined as the frequency range that evoked discharges and the spike counts evoked by those frequencies at a constant intensity. We then iontophoretically applied serotonin and compared response areas obtained before and during the application of serotonin. In 58 cells, we also assessed how serotonin-induced changes in response areas correlated with changes in the responses to brief frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps whose structure simulated natural echolocation calls. Serotonin profoundly changed tone-evoked spike counts in 60% of the neurons (68/114). In most neurons, serotonin exerted a gain control, facilitating or depressing the responses to all frequencies in their response areas. In many cells, serotonergic effects on tones were reflected in the responses to FM signals. The most interesting effects were in those cells in which serotonin selectively changed the responsiveness to only some frequencies in the neuron's response area and had little or no effect on other frequencies. This caused predictable changes in responses to the more complex FM sweeps whose spectral components passed through the neurons' response areas. Our results suggest that serotonin, whose release varies with behavioral state, functionally reconfigures the circuitry of the IC and may modulate the perception of acoustic signals under different behavioral states.

Serotonergic innervation of the auditory brainstem of the Mexican free-tailed bat,Tadarida brasiliensis

Anatomical and electrophysiological evidence suggests that serotonin alters the processing of sound in the auditory brainstem of many mammalian species. The Mexican free-tailed bat is a hearing specialist, like other microchiropteran bats. At the same time, many aspects of its auditory brainstem are similar to those in other mammals. This dichotomy raises an interesting question regarding the serotonergic innervation of the bat auditory brainstem: Is the serotonergic input to the auditory brainstem similar in bats and other mammals, or are there specializations in the serotonergic innervation of bats that may be related to their exceptional hearing capabilities? To address this question, we immunocytochemically labeled serotonergic fibers in the brainstem of the Mexican free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis. We found many similarities in the pattern of serotonergic innervation of the auditory brainstem in Tadarida compared with other mammals, but we also found two striking differences. Similarities to staining patterns in other mammals included a higher density of serotonergic fibers in the dorsal cochlear nucleus and in granule cell regions than in the ventral cochlear nucleus, a high density of fibers in some periolivary nuclei of the superior olive, and a higher density of fibers in peripheral regions of the inferior colliculus compared with its core. The two novel features of serotonergic innervation in Tadarida were a high density of fibers in the fusiform layer of the dorsal cochlear nucleus relative to surrounding layers and a relatively high density of serotonergic fibers in the low-frequency regions of the lateral and medial superior olive.

Structure and function of the bat superior olivary complex

The superior olivary complex (SOC) is a mammalian auditory brainstem structure that contains several nuclei. Some of them are part of the ascending system projecting to higher auditory centers, others belong to the descending system projecting to the cochlear nuclei or the cochlea itself. The main nuclei of the ascending system, the lateral and medial superior olive (LSO, MSO), as well as the lateral and medial nuclei of the trapezoid body (LNTB, MNTB), have been traditionally associated with sound localization. Here we review the results of recent studies on the main SOC nuclei in echolocating bats. These studies suggest that some SOC structures and functions are highly conserved across mammals (e.g., the LSO, which is associated with interaural intensity difference processing), while others are phylogenetically highly variable in both form and function (e.g., the MSO, traditionally associated with interaural time difference processing). For the MSO, these variations indicate that we should broaden our view regarding what functions the MSO might participate in, since its function in echolocation seems to lie in the context of pattern recognition rather than sound localization. Furthermore, across bat species, variations in the form and physiology of the MSO can be linked to specific behavioral adaptations associated with different echolocation strategies. Finally, the comparative approach, including auditory specialists such as bats, helps us to reach a more comprehensive view of the functional anatomy of auditory structures that are still poorly understood, like the nucleus of the central acoustic tract (NCAT).

Afferent projections of the superior olivary complex

Based on current literature, the afferents of the superior olivary complex (SOC) are described including those from the cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus, thalamus, and auditory cortex. Intrinsic SOC afferents and non-auditory afferents from the serotoninergic and noradrenergic systems are also described. New data are provided that show a differential distribution of serotoninergic afferents within the SOC: serotoninergic fibers were relatively sparse in the lateral and medial superior olives and the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body and were most numerous in periolivary regions. There are variations in the density of serotoninergic fibers within periolivary regions themselves. New data is also provided on auditory and non-auditory afferents to SOC neurons, which have known targets. These include: cochlear nucleus afferents to periolivary (lateral nucleus of the trapezoid body, LNTB) cells that project to the inferior colliculus; cortical afferents to periolivary (ventral nucleus of the trapezoid body, VNTB) cells that project to the cochlear nucleus; and serotoninergic and noradrenergic afferents to periolivary (LNTB and VNTB) cells that project to the cochlear nucleus. The relationships between other types of afferents and SOC neurons with known projections are also described as functional circuits. The circuits include those that are part of the ascending auditory system (to the inferior and superior colliculi, lateral lemniscus, and medial geniculate nucleus), the descending auditory system (to the cochlea and cochlear nucleus), and the middle ear reflex circuits.

Duration tuning in the mouse auditory midbrain

Temporal cues, including sound duration, are important for sound identification. Neurons tuned to the duration of pure tones were first discovered in the auditory system of frogs and bats and were discussed as specific adaptations in these animals. More recently duration sensitivity has also been described in the chinchilla midbrain and the cat auditory cortex, indicating that it might be a more general phenomenon than previously thought. However, it is unclear whether duration tuning in mammals is robust in face of changes of stimulus parameters other than duration. Using extracellular single-cell recordings in the mouse inferior colliculus, we found 55% of cells to be sensitive to stimulus duration showing long-pass, short-pass, or band-pass filter characteristics. For most neurons, a change in some other stimulus parameter, (e.g., intensity, frequency, binaural conditions, or using noise instead of pure tones) altered and sometimes abolished duration-tuning characteristics. Thus in many neurons duration tuning is interdependent with other stimulus parameters and, hence, might be context dependent. A small number of inferior colliculus neurons, in particular band-pass neurons, exhibited stable filter characteristics and could therefore be referred to as "duration selective." These findings support the idea that duration tuning is a general phenomenon in the mammalian auditory system.

Neural measurement of sound duration: control by excitatory-inhibitory interactions in the inferior colliculus

In the inferior colliculus (IC) of the big brown bat, a subpopulation of cells ( approximately 35%) are tuned to a narrow range of sound durations. Band-pass tuning for sound duration has not been seen at lower levels of the auditory pathway. Previous work suggests that it arises at the IC through the interaction of sound-evoked, temporally offset, excitatory and inhibitory inputs. To test this hypothesis, we recorded from duration-tuned neurons in the IC and examined duration tuning before and after iontophoretic infusion of antagonists to gamma-aminobutyric acid-A (GABA(A)) (bicuculline) or glycine (strychnine). The criterion for duration tuning was that the neuron's spike count as a function of duration had a peak value at one duration or a range of durations that was >/=2 times the lowest nonzero value at longer durations. Out of 21 units tested with bicuculline, duration tuning was eliminated in 15, broadened in two, and unaltered in four. Out of 10 units tested with strychnine, duration tuning was eliminated in four, broadened in one, and unaltered in five. For units tested with both bicuculline and strychnine, bicuculline had a greater effect on reducing or abolishing duration tuning than did strychnine. Bicuculline and strychnine both produced changes in discharge pattern. There was nearly always a shift from an offset response to an onset response, indicating that in the predrug condition, inhibition arrived simultaneously with excitation or preceded it. There was often an increase in the length of the spike train, indicating that in the predrug condition, inhibition also coincided with later parts of excitation. These findings support two hypotheses. First, duration tuning is created in the IC. Second, although the construction of duration tuning varies in some details among IC neurons, it follows three rules: 1) an excitatory and an inhibitory event are temporally linked to the onset of sound but temporally offset from one another; 2) the duration of some inhibitory event must be linked to the duration of the sound; 3) an excitatory event must be linked to the offset of sound.

Temporal processing in sensory systems

The idea that sensory information is represented by the temporal firing patterns of neurons or entire networks, rather than by firing rates measured over long integration times, has recently gained increasing experimental support. A number of mechanisms that help to preserve temporal information in ascending sensory systems have been identified, and the role of inhibition in these processes has been characterized. Furthermore, it has become obvious that temporal processing and the representation of sensory events by temporal spike patterns are highly dependent upon the behavioral state of the animal or experimental subject.

The evolution of temporal processing in the medial superior olive, an auditory brainstem structure

A basic concept in neuroscience is to correlate specific functions with specific neuronal structures. By discussing a specific example, an alternative concept is proposed: structures may be linked to rules of processing and these rules may serve different functions in different species or at different stages of evolution. The medial superior olive (MSO), a mammalian auditory brainstem structure, has been thought to solely process interaural time differences (ITD), the main cue for localizing low frequency sounds. Recent findings, however, indicate that this is not its only function since mammals that do not hear low frequencies and do not use ITDs for sound localization also possess a MSO. Recordings from the bat MSO indicate that it processes temporal cues in the milli- and submillisecond range, based on monaural or binaural inputs. In bats, and most likely in other small mammals, this temporal processing is related to pattern recognition and echo suppression rather than sound localization. However, the underlying mechanism, coincidence detection of several inputs, creates an epiphenomenal ITD sensitivity that is of no use for small mammals like bats or ancestral mammals. Such an epiphenomenal ITD sensitivity would have been a pre-adaptation which, when mammals grew larger during evolution and when localization of low frequency sounds became a question of survival, suddenly gained relevance. This way the MSO became involved in a new function without changing its basic rules of processing.

Interdependence of spatial and temporal coding in the auditory midbrain

To date, most physiological studies that investigated binaural auditory processing have addressed the topic rather exclusively in the context of sound localization. However, there is strong psychophysical evidence that binaural processing serves more than only sound localization. This raises the question of how binaural processing of spatial cues interacts with cues important for feature detection. The temporal structure of a sound is one such feature important for sound recognition. As a first approach, we investigated the influence of binaural cues on temporal processing in the mammalian auditory system. Here, we present evidence that binaural cues, namely interaural intensity differences (IIDs), have profound effects on filter properties for stimulus periodicity of auditory midbrain neurons in the echolocating big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Our data indicate that these effects are partially due to changes in strength and timing of binaural inhibitory inputs. We measured filter characteristics for the periodicity (modulation frequency) of sinusoidally frequency modulated sounds (SFM) under different binaural conditions. As criteria, we used 50% filter cutoff frequencies of modulation transfer functions based on discharge rate as well as synchronicity of discharge to the sound envelope. The binaural conditions were contralateral stimulation only, equal stimulation at both ears (IID = 0 dB), and more intense at the ipsilateral ear (IID = -20, -30 dB). In 32% of neurons, the range of modulation frequencies the neurons responded to changed considerably comparing monaural and binaural (IID =0) stimulation. Moreover, in approximately 50% of neurons the range of modulation frequencies was narrower when the ipsilateral ear was favored (IID = -20) compared with equal stimulation at both ears (IID = 0). In approximately 10% of the neurons synchronization differed when comparing different binaural cues. Blockade of the GABAergic or glycinergic inputs to the cells recorded from revealed that inhibitory inputs were at least partially responsible for the observed changes in SFM filtering. In 25% of the neurons, drug application abolished those changes. Experiments using electronically introduced interaural time differences showed that the strength of ipsilaterally evoked inhibition increased with increasing modulation frequencies in one third of the cells tested. Thus glycinergic and GABAergic inhibition is at least one source responsible for the observed interdependence of temporal structure of a sound and spatial cues.

Features of contralaterally evoked inhibition in the inferior colliculus

Cells in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICc) receive a large number of convergent inputs that are not only excitatory but inhibitory as well. While the excitatory responses of ICc cells have been studied extensively, less attention has been paid to the effects that inhibitory inputs have on auditory processing in the ICc. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of contralaterally evoked inhibition in single ICc cells in awake Mexican free-tailed bats. To study the contralaterally evoked inhibition, we created background activity by the iontophoretic application of the excitatory neurotransmitters glutamate and aspartate and visualized the inhibition as a gap in the carpet of background activity. We found that 85% of ICc cells exhibit a contralaterally evoked excitation followed by a period of inhibition. The inhibition acts primarily through GABA(A)20 ms) tones in generating persistent inhibition. While the early inhibition has clear roles in the shaping of excitatory response properties to a stimulus, the later persistent component of the inhibition is more enigmatic. The fact that the persistent inhibition lasts well beyond the duration of excitatory inputs to the ICc cell implies that the persistent inhibition may be important for the temporal segregation of the responses to multiple sound sources.

Local collateral projections from the medial superior olive to the superior paraolivary nucleus in the gerbil

Local collateral projections from the medial superior olivary nucleus in the gerbil auditory brainstem were examined to study the possible communication of this nucleus with periolivary cell groups. The projections were investigated using intracellular and extracellular labeling with Biocytin in the medial superior olive (MSO) in brainstem tissue slices. Collateral axons were found to branch from the main axons of the central cells of the MSO as the latter passed through a dorsally neighboring periolivary nucleus, the superior paraolivary nucleus (SPN), toward the ipsilateral inferior colliculus (IC), their traditionally accepted target. Bouton-like endings and en passant varicosities of these collaterals appeared to contact the somata and proximal dendrites of cells within the SPN. Furthermore, close observation revealed that these collaterals terminate on at least two types of SPN cells. Intracellular labeling of the collateral axons of the MSO neurons combined with retrograde prelabeling of their target cells, however, revealed that the collaterals selectively contact the cells of the SPN that project to the ipsilateral IC. A link between the MSO and SPN has not been reported previously. This connection is of interest since SPN cells themselves project either to the cochlear nuclei (CN) or the IC. The MSO-SPN projection identified here raises the possibility that the latter may serve as an ancillary channel to convey MSO information to the IC.

Serotonin differentially modulates responses to tones and frequency-modulated sweeps in the inferior colliculus

Although almost all auditory brainstem nuclei receive serotonergic innervation, little is known about its effects on auditory neurons. We address this question by evaluating the effects of serotonin on sound-evoked activity of neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of Mexican free-tailed bats. Two types of auditory stimuli were used: tone bursts at the neuron's best frequency and frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps with a variety of spectral and temporal structures. There were two main findings. First, serotonin changed tone-evoked responses in 66% of the IC neurons sampled. Second, the influence of serotonin often depended on the type of signal presented. Although serotonin depressed tone-evoked responses in most neurons, its effects on responses to FM sweeps were evenly mixed between depression and facilitation. Thus in most cells serotonin had a different effect on tone-evoked responses than it did on FM-evoked responses. In some neurons serotonin depressed responses evoked by tone bursts but left the responses to FM sweeps unchanged, whereas in others serotonin had little or no effect on responses to tone bursts but substantially facilitated responses to FM sweeps. In addition, serotonin could differentially affect responses to various FM sweeps that differed in temporal or spectral structure. Previous studies have revealed that the efficacy of the serotonergic innervation is partially modulated by sensory stimuli and by behavioral states. Thus our results suggest that the population activity evoked by a particular sound is not simply a consequence of the hard wiring that connects the IC to lower and higher regions but rather is highly dynamic because of the functional reconfigurations induced by serotonin and almost certainly other neuromodulators as well.

Multiple components of ipsilaterally evoked inhibition in the inferior colliculus

The central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICc) receives a large number of convergent inputs that are both excitatory and inhibitory. Although excitatory inputs typically are evoked by stimulation of the contralateral ear, inhibitory inputs can be recruited by either ear. Here we evaluate ipsilaterally evoked inhibition in single ICc cells in awake Mexican free-tailed bats. The principal question we addressed concerns the degree to which ipsilateral inhibition at the ICc suppresses contralaterally evoked discharges and thus creates the excitatory-inhibitory (EI) properties of ICc neurons. To study ipsilaterally evoked inhibition, we iontophoretically applied excitatory neurotransmitters and visualized the ipsilateral inhibition as a gap in the carpet of background activity evoked by the transmitters. Ipsilateral inhibition was seen in 86% of ICc cells. The inhibition in most cells had both glycinergic and GABAergic components that could be blocked by the iontophoretic application of bicuculline and strychnine. In 80% of the cells that were inhibited, the ipsilateral inhibition and contralateral excitation were temporally coincident. In many of these cells, the ipsilateral inhibition suppressed contralateral discharges and thus generated the cell's EI property in the ICc. In other cells, the ipsilateral inhibition was coincident with the initial portion of the excitation, but the inhibition was only 2-4 ms in duration and suppressed only the first few contralaterally evoked discharges. The suppression was so slight that it often could not be detected as a decrease in the spike count generated by increasing ipsilateral intensities. Twenty percent of the cells that expressed inhibition, however, had inhibitory latencies that were longer than the excitatory latencies. In these neurons, the inhibition arrived too late to suppress most or any of the discharges. Finally, in the majority of cells, the ipsilateral inhibition persisted for tens of milliseconds beyond the duration of the signal that evoked it. Thus ipsilateral inhibition has multiple components and one or more of these components are typically evoked in ICc neurons by sound received at the ipsilateral ear.

Coding of sound envelopes by inhibitory rebound in neurons of the superior olivary complex in the unanesthetized rabbit

Most natural sounds (e.g., speech) are complex and have amplitude envelopes that fluctuate rapidly. A number of studies have examined the neural coding of envelopes, but little attention has been paid to the superior olivary complex (SOC), a constellation of nuclei that receive information from the cochlear nucleus. We studied two classes of predominantly monaural neurons: those that displayed a sustained response to tone bursts and those that gave only a response to the tone offset. Our results demonstrate that the off neurons in the SOC can encode the pattern of amplitude-modulated sounds with high synchrony that is superior to sustained neurons. The upper cutoff frequency and highest modulation frequency at which significant synchrony was present were, on average, slightly higher for off neurons compared with sustained neurons. Finally, most sustained and off neurons encoded the level of pure tones over a wider range of intensities than those reported for auditory nerve fibers and cochlear nucleus neurons. A traditional view of inhibition is that it attenuates or terminates neural activity. Although this holds true for off neurons, the robust discharge when inhibition is released adds a new dimension. For simple sounds (i.e., pure tones), the off response can code a wide range of sound levels. For complex sounds, the off response becomes entrained to each modulation, resulting in a precise temporal coding of the envelope.

Timing in the auditory system of the bat

Echolocating bats use audition to guide much of their behavior. As in all vertebrates, their lower brainstem contains a number of parallel auditory pathways that provide excitatory or inhibitory outputs differing in their temporal discharge patterns and latencies. These pathways converge in the auditory midbrain, where many neurons are tuned to biologically important parameters of sound, including signal duration, frequency-modulated sweep direction, and the rate of periodic frequency or amplitude modulations. This tuning to biologically relevant temporal patterns of sound is created through the interplay of the time-delayed excitatory and inhibitory inputs to midbrain neurons. Because the tuning process requires integration over a relatively long time period, the rate at which midbrain auditory neurons respond corresponds to the cadence of sounds rather than their fine structure and may provide an output that is closely matched to the rate at which motor systems operate.

Interaural intensity difference processing in auditory midbrain neurons: effects of a transient early inhibitory input

Interaural intensity differences (IIDs) are important cues that animals use to localize high-frequency sounds. Neurons sensitive to IIDs are excited by stimulation of one ear and inhibited by stimulation of the other ear, such that the response magnitude of the cell depends on the relative strengths of the two inputs, which in turn depends on the sound intensities at the ears. In the auditory midbrain nucleus, the inferior colliculus (IC), many IID-sensitive neurons have response functions that decline steeply from maximum to zero spikes as a function of IID. However, there are also many neurons with much more shallow response functions that do not decline to zero spikes. We present evidence from single-unit recordings in the Free-tailed bat's IC that this partially inhibited response pattern is a result of the inhibitory input to these cells being very brief ( approximately 2 msec). Of the cells sampled, 54 of 137 (40%) achieved partial inhibition when tested with 60 msec tones, and the inhibition to these 54 cells occurred primarily during the first few milliseconds of the excitatory response. Consequently, the initial component of the response was highly sensitive to IIDs, whereas the later component was primarily insensitive to IIDs. Each of the 54 "partially inhibited" cells was able to reach complete inhibition with very short stimuli, such as simulated bat echolocation calls that invoked only the initial, IID-sensitive component. Local application of inhibitory transmitter antagonists disabled the short inhibitory input, indicating that this response pattern is created within the IC.

Sensitivity to interaural time differences in the medial superior olive of a small mammal, the Mexican free-tailed bat

Neurons in the medial superior olive (MSO) are thought to encode interaural time differences (ITDs), the main binaural cues used for localizing low-frequency sounds in the horizontal plane. The underlying mechanism is supposed to rely on a coincidence of excitatory inputs from the two ears that are phase-locked to either the stimulus frequency or the stimulus envelope. Extracellular recordings from MSO neurons in several mammals conform with this theory. However, there are two aspects that remain puzzling. The first concerns the role of the MSO in small mammals that have relatively poor low-frequency hearing and whose heads generate only very small ITDs. The second puzzling aspect of the scenario concerns the role of the prominent binaural inhibitory inputs to MSO neurons. We examined these two unresolved issues by recording from MSO cells in the Mexican free-tailed bat. Using sinusoidally amplitude-modulated tones, we found that the ITD sensitivities of many MSO cells in the bat were remarkably similar to those reported for larger mammals. Our data also indicate an important role for inhibition in sharpening ITD sensitivity and increasing the dynamic range of ITD functions. A simple model of ITD coding based on the timing of multiple inputs is proposed. Additionally, our data suggest that ITD coding is a by-product of a neuronal circuit that processes the temporal structure of sounds. Because of the free-tailed bat's small head size, ITD coding is most likely not the major function of the MSO in this small mammal and probably other small mammals.

GABAergic and glycinergic inhibition sharpens tuning for frequency modulations in the inferior colliculus of the big brown bat

Discrimination of amplitude and frequency modulated sounds is an important task of auditory processing. Experiments have shown that tuning of neurons to sinusoidally frequency- and amplitude-modulated (SFM and SAM, respectively) sounds becomes successively narrower going from lower to higher auditory brain stem nuclei. In the inferior colliculus (IC), many neurons are sharply tuned to the modulation frequency of SFM sounds. The purpose of this study was to determine whether GABAergic or glycinergic inhibition is involved in shaping the tuning for the modulation frequency of SFM sounds in IC neurons of the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). We recorded the response of 56 single units in the central nucleus of the IC to SFM stimuli before and during the application of the gamma-aminobutyric acid-A (GABAA) receptor antagonist bicuculline or the glycine receptor antagonist strychnine. To evaluate tuning to the modulation frequency, the normalized spike count (normalized according to the maximal response for each condition tested) was plotted versus the modulation frequency and the upper and lower 50% cutoff points were determined. Bicuculline increased the upper cutoff in 46% of the neurons by >/=25%. The lower cutoff decreased in 48% of the neurons tested. In some neurons (approximately 30%), a sharpening of the tuning by bicuculline was observed. Strychnine induced an increase of the upper cutoff in almost half of the neurons. Compared with bicuculline these changes were smaller. The lower cutoff decreased in 50% of the neurons with strychnine. The synchronization coefficient (SC) was calculated and compared for three modulation frequencies (50, 100, and 200 Hz) between predrug and drug condition. For all neurons, synchronization decreased (n = 36) or did not change (n = 26) during drug application. This was mainly an effect of the prolonged discharge in response to each cycle. Under predrug conditions, many neurons exhibited selectivity to the direction of the FM, hence they only responded once to each cycle. In a minority of neurons, direction selectivity was abolished by drug application. The main finding was that neuronal inhibition sharpens tuning to the modulation frequency in the majority of neurons. In general, changes induced by bicuculline or strychnine were comparable.