Role of synaptic inhibition in processing of dynamic binaural level stimuli

Population coding of auditory space in the dorsal inferior colliculus persists with altered binaural cues

Sound localization is critical for real-world hearing, such as segregating overlapping sound streams. For optimal flexibility, central representations of auditory space must adapt to peripheral changes in binaural cue availability, such as following asymmetric hearing loss in adulthood. However, whether the mature auditory system can reliably encode spatial auditory representations upon abrupt changes in binaural input is unclear. Here we use 2-photon Ca2+ imaging in awake head-fixed mice to determine how the higher-order "shell" layers of the inferior colliculus (IC) encode sound source location in the frontal azimuth, under binaural conditions and after acute monaural hearing loss induced by an ear plug ipsilateral to the imaged hemisphere. Spatial receptive fields were typically broad and not exclusively contralateral: Neurons responded reliably to multiple positions in the contra- and ipsi-lateral hemifields, with preferred positions tiling the entire frontal azimuth. Ear plugging broadened receptive fields and reduced spatial selectivity in a subset of neurons, in agreement with an inhibitory influence of ipsilateral sounds. However ear plugging also enhanced spatial tuning and/or unmasked receptive fields in other neurons, shifting the distribution of preferred angles ipsilaterally with minimal impact on the neuronal population's overall spatial resolution; these effects occurred within 2 hours of ear plugging. Consequently, linear classifiers trained on fluorescence data from control and ear-plugged conditions had similar classification accuracy when tested on held out data from within, but not across hearing conditions. Spatially informative neuronal population codes therefore arise rapidly following monaural hearing loss, in absence of overt experience.

Activation in the auditory pathway of the gerbil studied with 18F-FDG PET: effects of anesthesia

Here, we present results from an ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) study in the Mongolian gerbil, a preferred animal model in auditory research. One major issue in preclinical nuclear imaging, as well as in most of the neurophysiological methods investigating auditory processing, is the need of anesthesia. We compared the usability of two types of anesthesia which are frequently employed in electrophysiology, ketamine/xylazine (KX), and fentanyl/midazolam/medetomidine (FMM), for valid measurements of auditory activation with ¹⁸F-FDG PET. Gerbils were placed in a sound-shielding box and injected with ¹⁸F-FDG. Two acoustic free-field conditions were used: (1) baseline (no stimulation, 25 dB background noise) and (2) 90 dB frequency-modulated tones (FM). After 40 min of ¹⁸F-FDG uptake, a 30 min acquisition was performed using a small animal PET/CT system. Blood glucose levels were measured after the uptake phase before scanning. Standardized uptake value ratios for relevant regions were determined after implementing image and volume of interest templates. Scans demonstrated a significantly higher uptake in the inferior colliculus with FM stimulation compared to baseline in awake subjects (+ 12%; p = 0.02) and with FMM anesthesia (+ 13%; p = 0.0012), but not with KX anesthesia. In non-auditory brain regions, no significant difference was detected. Blood glucose levels were significantly higher under KX compared to FMM anesthesia (17.29 ± 0.42 mmol/l vs. 14.30 ± 1.91 mmol/l; p = 0.024). These results suggest that valid ¹⁸F-FDG PET measurements of auditory activation comparable to electrophysiology can be obtained from gerbils during opioid-based anesthesia due to its limited effects on interfering blood glucose levels.

Contextual modulation of sound processing in the auditory cortex

In everyday acoustic environments, we navigate through a maze of sounds that possess a complex spectrotemporal structure, spanning many frequencies and exhibiting temporal modulations that differ within frequency bands. Our auditory system needs to efficiently encode the same sounds in a variety of different contexts, while preserving the ability to separate complex sounds within an acoustic scene. Recent work in auditory neuroscience has made substantial progress in studying how sounds are represented in the auditory system under different contexts, demonstrating that auditory processing of seemingly simple acoustic features, such as frequency and time, is highly dependent on co-occurring acoustic and behavioral stimuli. Through a combination of electrophysiological recordings, computational analysis and behavioral techniques, recent research identified the interactions between external spectral and temporal context of stimuli, as well as the internal behavioral state.

Modeling Responses in the Superior Paraolivary Nucleus: Implications for Forward Masking in the Inferior Colliculus

A phenomenological model of the responses of neurons in the superior paraolivary nucleus (SPON) of the rodent is presented in this study. Pure tones at the characteristic frequency (CF) and broadband noise stimuli evoke offset-type responses in these neurons. SPON neurons also phase-lock to the envelope of sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (SAM) stimuli for a range of modulation frequencies. Model SPON neuron received inhibitory input that was relayed by the ipsilateral medial nucleus of the trapezoid body from the contralateral model ventral cochlear nucleus neuron. The SPON model response was simulated by detecting the slope of its inhibitory postsynaptic potential. Responses of the proposed model to pure tones at CF and broadband noise were offset-type independent of the duration of the input stimulus. SPON model responses were also synchronized to the envelope of SAM stimuli with precise timing for a range of modulation frequencies. Modulation transfer functions (MTFs) obtained from the model response to SAM stimuli resemble the physiological MTFs. The output of the proposed SPON model provides an input for models of physiological responses at higher levels of the ascending auditory pathway and can also be utilized to infer possible mechanisms underlying gap detection and duration encoding as well as forward masking at the level of the auditory midbrain.

Sound localization

The auditory system derives locations of sound sources from spatial cues provided by the interaction of sound with the head and external ears. Those cues are analyzed in specific brainstem pathways and then integrated as cortical representation of locations. The principal cues for horizontal localization are interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural differences in sound level (ILDs). Vertical and front/back localization rely on spectral-shape cues derived from direction-dependent filtering properties of the external ears. The likely first sites of analysis of these cues are the medial superior olive (MSO) for ITDs, lateral superior olive (LSO) for ILDs, and dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) for spectral-shape cues. Localization in distance is much less accurate than that in horizontal and vertical dimensions, and interpretation of the basic cues is influenced by additional factors, including acoustics of the surroundings and familiarity of source spectra and levels. Listeners are quite sensitive to sound motion, but it remains unclear whether that reflects specific motion detection mechanisms or simply detection of changes in static location. Intact auditory cortex is essential for normal sound localization. Cortical representation of sound locations is highly distributed, with no evidence for point-to-point topography. Spatial representation is strictly contralateral in laboratory animals that have been studied, whereas humans show a prominent right-hemisphere dominance.

Attentional modulation of auditory steady-state responses

Auditory selective attention enables task-relevant auditory events to be enhanced and irrelevant ones suppressed. In the present study we used a frequency tagging paradigm to investigate the effects of attention on auditory steady state responses (ASSR). The ASSR was elicited by simultaneously presenting two different streams of white noise, amplitude modulated at either 16 and 23.5 Hz or 32.5 and 40 Hz. The two different frequencies were presented to each ear and participants were instructed to selectively attend to one ear or the other (confirmed by behavioral evidence). The results revealed that modulation of ASSR by selective attention depended on the modulation frequencies used and whether the activation was contralateral or ipsilateral. Attention enhanced the ASSR for contralateral activation from either ear for 16 Hz and suppressed the ASSR for ipsilateral activation for 16 Hz and 23.5 Hz. For modulation frequencies of 32.5 or 40 Hz attention did not affect the ASSR. We propose that the pattern of enhancement and inhibition may be due to binaural suppressive effects on ipsilateral stimulation and the dominance of contralateral hemisphere during dichotic listening. In addition to the influence of cortical processing asymmetries, these results may also reflect a bias towards inhibitory ipsilateral and excitatory contralateral activation present at the level of inferior colliculus. That the effect of attention was clearest for the lower modulation frequencies suggests that such effects are likely mediated by cortical brain structures or by those in close proximity to cortex.

Adaptation in sound localization: from GABA(B) receptor-mediated synaptic modulation to perception

Across all sensory modalities, the effect of context-dependent neural adaptation can be observed at every level, from receptors to perception. Nonetheless, it has long been assumed that the processing of interaural time differences, which is the primary cue for sound localization, is nonadaptive, as its outputs are mapped directly onto a hard-wired representation of space. Here we present evidence derived from in vitro and in vivo experiments in gerbils indicating that the coincidence-detector neurons in the medial superior olive modulate their sensitivity to interaural time differences through a rapid, GABA(B) receptor-mediated feedback mechanism. We show that this mechanism provides a gain control in the form of output normalization, which influences the neuronal population code of auditory space. Furthermore, psychophysical tests showed that the paradigm used to evoke neuronal GABA(B) receptor-mediated adaptation causes the perceptual shift in sound localization in humans that was expected on the basis of our physiological results in gerbils.

Circuits for processing dynamic interaural intensity disparities in the inferior colliculus

Interaural intensity disparities (IIDs), the cues all animals use to localize high frequency sounds, are initially processed in the lateral superior olive (LSO) by a subtractive process where inputs from one ear excite and inputs from the other ear inhibit LSO neurons. Such cells are called excitatory-inhibitory (EI) neurons and are prominent not only in the LSO but also in higher nuclei, which include the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (DNLL) and inferior colliculus (IC). The IC is of particular interest since its EI cells receive diverse innervation patterns from a large number of lower nuclei, which include the DNLLs and LSOs, and thus comprise a population with diverse binaural properties. The first part of this review focuses on the circuits that create EI cells in the LSO, DNLL and IC. The second section then turns to the responses evoked by dynamic IIDs that change over time, as with multiple sounds that emanate from different regions of space or moving sound sources. I show that many EI neurons in the IC respond to dynamic IIDs in ways that are not predictable from their responses to static IIDs, IIDs presented one at a time. In the final section, results from in vivo whole cell recording in the IC are presented and address the connectional basis for the responsiveness to dynamic IIDs. The principal conclusion is that EI cells comprise a diverse population. The diversity is created by the particular set of inputs each EI type receives and is expressed in the differences in the responses to dynamic IIDs that are generated by those inputs. These results show that the construction of EI neurons in the IC imparts features that not only encode the location of an individual sound source, but also that allow animals to determine the direction of a moving sound and to focus and localize a single sound in midst of many sounds, as typically occurs in the daily lives of all animals.

Time-dependent effects of ipsilateral stimulation on contralaterally elicited responses in the rat's central nucleus of the inferior colliculus

Recordings were made from single neurons in the rat's central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICc). Binaural responses were studied when dichotic tone bursts with various interaural-level differences were presented simultaneously or with a contralateral delay. These dichotic tone bursts allowed us to probe temporal changes in the effect produced by an ipsilateral sound on a contralaterally elicited response. Most of the neurons in the rat's ICc were excited by contralateral and inhibited by ipsilateral stimulation. For the majority of neurons with excitatory/inhibitory interactions, the early part of an ipsilateral stimulus caused stronger inhibition than the late part. The ipsilateral stimulus frequently produced an excitatory or inhibitory "offset" effect that was apparent soon after cessation of the stimulus. For many neurons, this aftereffect substantially changed the strength and temporal firing pattern of the response elicited by a lagging contralateral stimulus. Our results suggest that there are time-dependent changes in the effect of ipsilateral stimulation on the pattern and strength of responses to contralateral stimulation. These effects frequently outlast the duration of a leading ipsilateral stimulus. These characteristics of binaural interaction likely reflect the time courses of converging excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs to ICc neurons as well as the intrinsic membrane properties of those neurons.

Transient gain adjustment in the inferior colliculus is serotonin- and calcium-dependent

In the inferior colliculus (IC), a brief period of acoustic conditioning can transiently enhance evoked discharge rate. The cellular basis of this phenomenon was assessed with whole cell current-clamp recordings in a gerbil IC brain slice preparation. The current needed to elicit a single action potential was first established for each neuron. A 5s synaptic stimulus train was delivered to the lateral lemniscus (LL), and followed immediately by the initial current pulse to assess a change in postsynaptic gain. The majority of IC neurons (66%) displayed an increase in current-evoked action potentials (Positive Gain). Despite the blockade of ionotropic glutamate receptors, this effect was correlated with membrane depolarization that occurred during the synaptic train. The postsynaptic mechanism for positive gain was examined by selective blockade of specific neurotransmitter receptors. Gain in action potentials was enhanced by antagonists of metabotropic glutamate, acetylcholine, GABA(A) and glycine receptors. In contrast, the gain was blocked or reduced by an antagonist to ionotropic serotonin receptors (5-HT(3)R). Blocking voltage-activated calcium channels with verapamil also reduced the effect. These results suggest that 5-HT(3)R activation, coupled with increased intracellular calcium, can transiently alter postsynaptic excitability in IC neurons.

Dynamic changes in level influence spatial coding in the lateral superior olive

It is well established that the responses of binaural auditory neurons can adapt and change dramatically depending on the nature of a preceding sound. Examples of how the effects of ensuing stimuli play a functional role in auditory processing include motion sensitivity and precedence-like effects. To date, these types of effects have been documented at the level of the midbrain and above. Little is known about sensitivity to ensuing stimuli below in the superior olivary nuclei where binaural response properties are first established. Here we report on single cell responses in the gerbil lateral superior olive, the initial site where sensitivity to interaural level differences is established. In contrast to our expectations we found a robust sensitivity to ensuing stimuli. The majority of the cells we tested (86%), showed substantial suppression and/or enhancement to a designated target stimulus, depending on the nature of a preceding stimulus. Hence, sensitivity to ensuing stimuli is already established at the first synaptic station of binaural processing.

Dynamic amplitude coding in the auditory cortex of awake rhesus macaques

In many animals, the information most important for processing communication sounds, including speech, consists of temporal envelope cues below approximately 20 Hz. Physiological studies, however, have typically emphasized the upper limits of modulation encoding. Responses to sinusoidal AM (SAM) are generally summarized by modulation transfer functions (MTFs), which emphasize tuning to modulation frequency rather than the representation of the instantaneous stimulus amplitude. Unfortunately, MTFs fail to capture important but nonlinear aspects of amplitude coding in the central auditory system. We focus on an alternative data representation, the modulation period histogram (MPH), which depicts the spike train folded on the modulation period of the SAM stimulus. At low modulation frequencies, the fluctuations of stimulus amplitude in decibels are robustly encoded by the cycle-by-cycle response dynamics evident in the MPH. We show that all of the parameters that define a SAM stimulus--carrier frequency, carrier level, modulation frequency, and modulation depth--are reflected in the shape of cortical MPHs. In many neurons that are nonmonotonically tuned for sound amplitude, the representation of modulation frequency is typically sacrificed to preserve the mapping between the instantaneous discharge rate and the instantaneous stimulus amplitude, resulting in two response modes per modulation cycle. This behavior, as well as the relatively poor tuning of cortical MTFs, suggests that auditory cortical neurons are not well suited for operating as a "modulation filterbank." Instead, our results suggest that <20 Hz, the processing of modulated signals is better described as envelope shape discrimination rather than modulation frequency extraction.

Mismatch Negativity and Stimulus-Specific Adaptation in Animal Models

Animal models of MMN may serve both to further our understanding of neural processing beyond pure sensory coding and for unraveling the neural and pharmacological processes involved in the generation of MMN. We start this review by discussing the methodological issues that are especially important when pursuing a single-neuron correlate of MMN. Correlates of MMN have been studied in mice, rats, cats, and primates. Whereas essentially all of these studies demonstrated the presence of stimulus-specific adaptation, in the sense that responses to deviant tones are larger than the responses to standard tones, the presence of real MMN has been established only in a few. We argue for the use of more and better controls in order to clarify the situation. Finally, we discuss in detail the relationships between stimulus-specific adaptation of single-neuron responses, as established in the cat auditory cortex, and MMN. We argue that this is currently the only fully established correlate of true change detection, and hypothesize that it precedes and probably induces the neural activity that is eventually measured as MMN.

Microtopography of the dual corticothalamic projections originating from domains along the frequency axis of the cat primary auditory cortex

Spatial relationships between clusters of corticothalamic (CT) large terminals originating from cortical domains tuned to different frequencies were examined by pair-injecting two different anterograde tracers. Large-terminal CT projection originating from layer 5 was highly divergent with each injection site producing, on average, 15 local clusters distributing throughout non-lemniscal thalamic nuclei following a single anterograde tracer injection in the cat primary auditory cortex. Paired injections in higher- and lower-frequency cortical domains, resulting in labeling of two independent sets of terminal clusters, showed five recognizable patterns of spatial interaction between them. (1) In the ventral division of the medial geniculate complex (vMGC), sheet-like plexuses of small terminals of different origins were situated in parallel, with minimal overlap. (2) Extensive overlap of two low-density plexuses of differently labeled small terminals was observed in the medial division of the medial geniculate complex (MGC). (3) At the transition zones between the vMGC and the superficial dorsal nucleus of the MGC dorsal division, and between the vMGC and the ventrolateral nucleus, there were relatively broad clusters of a high density of large-terminal structures from the two cortical domains, which overlapped extensively. (4) At multiple loci in the nonlemniscal nuclei, pairing of two small clusters of differently labeled large terminals was observed. (5) Small unpaired clusters of large terminals were also found in the nonlemniscal nuclei. For large terminals, approximately 14%, 59%, and 27% clusters per injection demonstrated patterns 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The results provide evidence for the precise topographical organization for the large-terminal CT system at the microscopic level despite its highly divergent projection. This microtopographical projection from the tonotopic cortical field to non-tonotopic thalamic nuclei may raise the possibility of presence of a map that has not been defined in auditory non-lemniscal thalamic nuclei yet.

Inhibitory and excitatory response areas of neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus in unanesthetized chinchillas

In unanesthetized chinchillas, we determined excitatory and inhibitory response regions of neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICc). The responses of 250 multiunits and 47 single units in the ICc to one- and two-tone stimuli were measured by extracellular recordings. The one-tone excitatory response area of ICc neurons from awake chinchillas was classified as either narrow with a steep high-frequency slope >140 dB/oct (type 1), broad with a high-frequency slope <140 dB/oct (type 2), or complex with a negative high-frequency slope (type 3). One-tone inhibition was prominent only in units with a high spontaneous firing rate. As revealed with two-tone stimuli, inhibition in the ICc of awake chinchillas and its relation to excitatory response regions was different from what is reported in anesthetized animals. The two-tone inhibitory responses were classified as follows: (1) inhibitory regions of equal strength on both sides of the characteristic frequency; (2) asymmetrical inhibitory regions, more prominent at the high-frequency side of the characteristic frequency; (3) strong inhibitory regions overlying most of the one-tone excitatory response region; (4) inhibitory response regions lying only within the one-tone excitatory response region; and (5) neurons without clear two-tone inhibition. One-tone and two-tone inhibitory regions of the same unit were markedly different in 66% of the units with a high spontaneous rate. The neural response to frequencies within the inhibitory regions often was an onset response followed by inhibition. Excitatory and inhibitory response properties were similar over considerable penetration distances (600-1,000 microm) in a particular dorso-ventral recording track.

Early Appearance of Inhibitory Input to the MNTB Supports Binaural Processing During Development

Despite the peripheral and central immaturities that limit auditory processing in juvenile animals, they are able to lateralize sounds using binaural cues. This study explores a central mechanism that may compensate for these limitations during development. Interaural time and level difference processing by neurons in the superior olivary complex depends on synaptic inhibition from the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), a group of inhibitory neurons that is activated by contralateral sound stimuli. In this study, we examined the maturation of coding properties of MNTB neurons and found that they receive an inhibitory influence from the ipsilateral ear that is modified during the course of postnatal development. Single neuron recordings were obtained from the MNTB in juvenile (postnatal day 15–19) and adult gerbils. Approximately 50% of all recorded MNTB neurons were inhibited by ipsilateral sound stimuli, but juvenile neurons displayed a much greater suppression of firing as compared with those in adults. A comparison of the prepotential and postsynaptic action potential indicated that inhibition occurred at the presynaptic level, likely within the cochlear nucleus. A simple linear model of level difference detection by lateral superior olivary neurons that receive input from MNTB suggested that inhibition of the MNTB may expand the response of LSO neurons to physiologically realistic level differences, particularly in juvenile animals, at a time when these cues are reduced.

The temporal growth and decay of the auditory motion aftereffect

The present work investigated the temporal tuning of the auditory motion aftereffect (aMAE) by measuring the time course of adaptation and recovery to auditory motion exposure. On every trial, listeners were first exposed to a broadband, horizontally moving sound source for either 1 or 5 seconds, then presented moving test stimuli after delays of 0, 2/3, or 1 2/3 seconds. All stimuli were synthesized from head related transfer functions recorded for each participant. One second of motion exposure (i.e., a single pass of the moving source) produced clearly measurable aMAEs which generally decayed monotonically after adaptation ended, while five seconds exposure produced stronger aftereffects that remained largely unattenuated across test delays. These differences may imply two components to the aMAE: a short time-constant motion illusion and a longer time-constant response bias. Finally, aftereffects were produced only by adaptor movement toward but not away from listener midline. This aftereffect asymmetry may also be a consequence of brief adaptation times and reflect initial neural response to auditory motion in primate auditory cortex.

Cortical convergence from different frequency domains in the cat primary auditory cortex

Primary auditory cortex (AI) has a tonotopic map consisting of orderly isofrequency (IF) bands, and cortical connections are commonly supposed to link domains preferring similar characteristic frequencies (CFs) within AI and in auditory association cortex. The interaction of different frequency channels, however, has not fully been understood in terms of anatomical substrates. Here, by injecting two anterograde tracers in different frequency domains of cat AI, without overlap of the injection cores, we attempted to relate the anatomical mapping of cortical outputs to physiologically defined fields in the auditory cortex. Consistent with previous studies, patches of labeled axon terminals were oriented largely along the IF axis. In regions distant from the injection sites, however, terminal patches were divergent in distribution. This divergence resulted in a complex geometry of partial overlap of projections originating from the two injection sites. The relative extent of the overlap tended to vary depending on the distance between the two injection sites. Physiological mapping for tonotopy across auditory fields revealed that projectional overlap was characteristic of dorsal AI and the dorsoposterior field and, to a lesser extent, in the secondary auditory field. Considering the differences in frequency representation in different AI IF bands, the anatomical convergence of projections tuned to different CFs could contribute to the spectral integration of sound components. Furthermore, the different extent of convergence in the functionally distinct fields might reflect field-specific processing of acoustic signals.

Spike-frequency adaptation in the inferior colliculus

We investigated spike-frequency adaptation of neurons sensitive to interaural phase disparities (IPDs) in the inferior colliculus (IC) of urethane-anesthetized guinea pigs using a stimulus paradigm designed to exclude the influence of adaptation below the level of binaural integration. The IPD-step stimulus consists of a binaural 3,000-ms tone, in which the first 1,000 ms is held at a neuron's least favorable ("worst") IPD, adapting out monaural components, before being stepped rapidly to a neuron's most favorable ("best") IPD for 300 ms. After some variable interval (1-1,000 ms), IPD is again stepped to the best IPD for 300 ms, before being returned to a neuron's worst IPD for the remainder of the stimulus. Exponential decay functions fitted to the response to best-IPD steps revealed an average adaptation time constant of 52.9 +/- 26.4 ms. Recovery from adaptation to best IPD steps showed an average time constant of 225.5 +/- 210.2 ms. Recovery time constants were not correlated with adaptation time constants. During the recovery period, adaptation to a 2nd best-IPD step followed similar kinetics to adaptation during the 1st best-IPD step. The mean adaptation time constant at stimulus onset (at worst IPD) was 34.8 +/- 19.7 ms, similar to the 38.4 +/- 22.1 ms recorded to contralateral stimulation alone. Individual time constants after stimulus onset were correlated with each other but not with time constants during the best-IPD step. We conclude that such binaurally derived measures of adaptation reflect processes that occur above the level of exclusively monaural pathways, and subsequent to the site of primary binaural interaction.

GABA is involved in spatial unmasking in the frog auditory midbrain

Real-world listening situations comprise multiple auditory objects. Sounds originating from different objects are summated at the eardrum. The auditory system therefore must segregate the streams of sounds associated with the different objects. One listening strategy in complex environments is to attend to signals originating from one spatial location. In doing so, signal detection is compromised when a masker is present at close proximity, and detection is improved if the masker is spatially separated from the signal. A recent study has shown that, in frogs, spatial unmasking is more robust at the midbrain than at the periphery, indicating the importance of central mechanisms for this process. In this study, we investigated spatial unmasking patterns of single neurons in the frog inferior colliculus (IC) before and during iontophoretic application of bicuculline, a GABA(A) receptor antagonist. We found that drug application markedly decreased the strength of spatial unmasking such that even large angular separation of signal and masker sources produced only a weak masking release. Under the drug, the strength of spatial unmasking of midbrain neurons approximated that of auditory nerve fibers. These data show that GABAergic interactions in the auditory midbrain play an important role in spatial unmasking. Analysis of the effect of the drug on the direction sensitivity of the units shows that for the majority of IC units, bicuculline degrades binaural processing involved in directional coding, thereby compromising spatial unmasking. For other IC units, however, the decline in the strength of spatial unmasking is attributable to the effects of bicuculline on different central auditory processes.

Processing of low-probability sounds by cortical neurons

The ability to detect rare auditory events can be critical for survival. We report here that neurons in cat primary auditory cortex (A1) responded more strongly to a rarely presented sound than to the same sound when it was common. For the rare stimuli, we used both frequency and amplitude deviants. Moreover, some A1 neurons showed hyperacuity for frequency deviants--a frequency resolution one order of magnitude better than receptive field widths in A1. In contrast, auditory thalamic neurons were insensitive to the probability of frequency deviants. These phenomena resulted from stimulus-specific adaptation in A1, which may be a single-neuron correlate of an extensively studied cortical potential--mismatch negativity--that is evoked by rare sounds. Our results thus indicate that A1 neurons, in addition to processing the acoustic features of sounds, may also be involved in sensory memory and novelty detection.

Adaptation and inhibition underlie responses to time-varying interaural phase cues in a model of inferior colliculus neurons

A mathematical model was developed for exploring the sensitivity of low-frequency inferior colliculus (IC) neurons to interaural phase disparity (IPD). The formulation involves a firing-rate-type model that does not include spikes per se. The model IC neuron receives IPD-tuned excitatory and inhibitory inputs (viewed as the output of a collection of cells in the medial superior olive). The model cell possesses cellular properties of firing rate adaptation and postinhibitory rebound (PIR). The descriptions of these mechanisms are biophysically reasonable, but only semi-quantitative. We seek to explain within a minimal model the experimentally observed mismatch between responses to IPD stimuli delivered dynamically and those delivered statically (McAlpine et al. 2000; Spitzer and Semple 1993). The model reproduces many features of the responses to static IPD presentations, binaural beat, and partial range sweep stimuli. These features include differences in responses to a stimulus presented in static or dynamic context: sharper tuning and phase shifts in response to binaural beats, and hysteresis and "rise-from-nowhere" in response to partial range sweeps. Our results suggest that dynamic response features are due to the structure of inputs and the presence of firing rate adaptation and PIR mechanism in IC cells, but do not depend on a specific biophysical mechanism. We demonstrate how the model's various components contribute to shaping the observed phenomena. For example, adaptation, PIR, and transmission delay shape phase advances and delays in responses to binaural beats, adaptation and PIR shape hysteresis in different ranges of IPD, and tuned inhibition underlies asymmetry in dynamic tuning properties. We also suggest experiments to test our modeling predictions: in vitro simulation of the binaural beat (phase advance at low beat frequencies, its dependence on firing rate), in vivo partial range sweep experiments (dependence of the hysteresis curve on parameters), and inhibition blocking experiments (to study inhibitory tuning properties by observation of phase shifts).

Encoding of sound motion by binaural brainstem units in a Horseshoe bat

In order to study how and if single brainstem units respond to moving compared with stationary sounds, radially moving sound sources were presented to the bat, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. This time-variant binaural stimulation was simulated dichotically through earphones (closed-acoustic-field for the virtual azimuth range of +/-40 degrees from the midline). Neurophysiologically recorded responses primarily showed a function of interaural intensity difference (IID) which is considered a direct correlate of the sound source's azimuth angle. However, this is only true for the stationary case. Unit's response did not remain unaffected by the dynamic stimulus cues of sound source movement (velocity and direction). Maximal discharge rate became a function of motion velocity as well as the slopes of the response profiles. Hence, coding of IID became ambiguous as, depending on the unit, the response profiles and therefore a unit's receptive field, became spatially shifted with respect to one another when the direction of the sound source movement was reversed. Shifts within the movement direction (hysteresis) as well as against it (termed here 'advance') were observed: hysteresis is typical for units with non-monotonic, stationary rate/intensity functions, whereas those units with monotonic functions predominantly show advances. Further dynamic response features in form of transient peaks and troughs, superimposed on the response profiles, were registered. It appears that the ongoing firing rate no longer represents azimuth position alone, but vigorously reproduces the dynamic cues (velocity and movement direction), too. With respect to the neural mechanisms leading to dynamic response features, it is proposed that, as long excitation and inhibition act with similar short time constants, neural activity can rapidly and faithfully follow changing IIDs. Different time constants for excitation, inhibition, facilitation, and depression may be responsible for the dynamic 'features' such as transient responses and hysteresis/advance. They may provide biologically relevant information for nocturnally hunting bats to efficiently guide their flight maneuvers.

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.

Effects of auditory stimulus context on the representation of frequency in the gerbil inferior colliculus

Prior studies of dynamic conditioning have focused on modulation of binaural localization cues, revealing that the responses of inferior colliculus (IC) neurons to particular values of interaural phase and level disparities depend critically on the context in which they occur. Here we show that monaural frequency transitions, which do not simulate azimuthal motion, also condition the responses of IC neurons. We characterized single-unit responses to two frequency transition stimuli: a glide stimulus comprising two tones linked by a linear frequency sweep (origin-sweep-target) and a step stimulus consisting of one tone followed immediately by another (origin-target). Using sets of glide and step stimuli converging on a common target, we constructed conditioned response functions (RFs) depicting the variability in the response to an identical stimulus as a function of the preceding origin frequency. For nearly all cells, the response to the target depended on the origin frequency, even for origins outside the excitatory frequency response area of the cell. Results from conditioned RFs based on long (2-4 s) and short (200 ms) duration step stimuli indicate that conditioning effects can be induced in the absence of the dynamic sweep, and by stimuli of relatively short duration. Because IC neurons are tuned to frequency, changes in the origin frequency often change the "effective" stimulus duty cycle. In many cases, the enhancement of the target response appeared related to the decrease in the "effective" stimulus duty cycle rather than to the prior presentation of a particular origin frequency. Although this implies that nonselective adaptive mechanisms are responsible for conditioned responses, slightly more than half of IC neurons in each paradigm responded significantly differently to targets following origins that elicited statistically indistinguishable responses. The prevailing influence of stimulus context when discharge history is controlled demonstrates that not all the mechanisms governing conditioning depend on the discharge history of the recorded neuron. Selective adaptation among the neuron's variously tuned afferents may help engender stimulus-specific conditioning. The demonstration that conditioning effects reflect sensitivity to spectral as well as spatial stimulus contrast has broad implications for the processing of a wide range of dynamic acoustic signals and sound sequences.

Cortical representation of acoustic motion in the rufous horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus rouxi

Responses of neurons to apparent auditory motion in the azimuth were recorded in three different fields of auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat. Motion was simulated using successive stimuli with dynamically changing interaural intensity differences presented via earphones. Seventy-one percent of sampled neurons were motion-direction-sensitive. Two types of responses could be distinguished. Thirty-four percent of neurons showed a directional preference exhibiting stronger responses to one direction of motion. Fifty-seven percent of neurons responded with a shift of spatial receptive field position depending on direction of motion. Both effects could occur in the same neuron depending on the parameters of apparent motion. Most neurons with contralateral receptive fields exhibited directional preference only with motion entering the receptive field from the opposite direction. Receptive field shifts were opposite to the direction of motion. Specific combinations of spatiotemporal parameters determined the motion-direction-sensitive responses. Velocity was not encoded as a specific parameter. Temporal parameters of motion and azimuth position of the moving sound source were differentially encoded by neurons in different fields of auditory cortex. Neurons with a directional preference in the dorsal fields can encode motion with short interpulse intervals, whereas direction-preferring neurons in the primary field can best encode motion with medium interpulse intervals. Furthermore, neurons with a directional preference in the dorsal fields are specialized for encoding motion in the midfield of azimuth, whereas direction-preferring neurons in the primary field can encode motion in lateral positions. The results suggest that motion information is differentially processed in different fields of the auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat.

Changes in the auditory-evoked potentials induced by fear-evoking stimulations

It is long established that the inferior colliculus is involved in conveying all kinds of auditory information to higher cortical structures. Moreover, gradual increases in the electrical stimulation of this structure produces progressive aversive responses from vigilance, through freezing, until escape. Recently, we have shown that microinjections of the excitatory amino acids, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and glutamate, into the inferior colliculus mimic these aversive effects. In the present study, we extend these observations showing that unilateral microinjections of 5 nmol of glutamate into the inferior colliculus--a dose that causes freezing behavior--in rats with bilateral recording electrodes into this structure produce an increase in the magnitude of the collicular-evoked potential in the ipsilateral side of the injection in relation to saline-injected animals. Besides, the application of two kinds of fear-evoking stimulations--light as a conditioned stimuli (CS) and ultrasound signals at the frequency of 22 kHz--also produced an increase in the amplitude of the evoked potentials recorded from the inferior colliculus in comparison to control situations without aversive stimuli presentations. These data support previous reports showing that fast-acting excitatory amino acid receptors in this midbrain region are involved in the processing of auditory information. Moreover, fear-eliciting stimulations, such as light-CS and ultrasound signals, increase acoustically evoked firing of neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus of rats.

Responses of neurons in the inferior colliculus to dynamic interaural phase cues: evidence for a mechanism of binaural adaptation

Responses to sound stimuli that humans perceive as moving were obtained for 89 neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of urethan-anesthetized guinea pigs. Triangular and sinusoidal interaural phase modulation (IPM), which produced dynamically varying interaural phase disparities (IPDs), was used to present stimuli with different depths, directions, centers, and rates of apparent motion. Many neurons appeared sensitive to dynamic IPDs, with responses at any given IPD depending strongly on the IPDs the stimulus had just passed through. However, it was the temporal pattern of the response, rather than the motion cues in the IPM, that determined sensitivity to features such as motion depth, direction, and center locus. IPM restricted only to the center of the IPD responsive area, evoked lower discharge rates than when the stimulus either moved through the IPD responsive area from outside, or up and down its flanks. When the stimulus was moved through the response area first in one direction and then back in the other, and the same IPDs evoked different responses, the response to the motion away from the center of the IPD responsive area was always lower than the response to the motion toward the center. When the IPD was closer at which the direction of motion reversed was to the center, the response to the following motion was lower. In no case did we find any evidence for neurons that under all conditions preferred one direction of motion to the other. We conclude that responses of IC neurons to IPM stimuli depend not on the history of stimulation, per se, but on the history of their response to stimulation, irrespective of the specific motion cues that evoke those responses. These data are consistent with the involvement of an adaptation mechanism that resides at or above the level of binaural integration. We conclude that our data provide no evidence for specialized motion detection involving dynamic IPD cues in the auditory midbrain of the mammal.

Afferent regulation of inhibitory synaptic transmission in the developing auditory midbrain

To determine whether afferent innervation regulates the strength of inhibitory connections in the gerbil auditory midbrain, both cochleas were surgically removed in postnatal day 7 animals, before sound-driven activity is first observed. Inhibitory synaptic currents were measured in a brain slice preparation 1-7 d after the ablations. Whole-cell and gramicidin-perforated patch recordings were obtained from inferior colliculus neurons, and IPSCs were evoked by stimulation of the commissure of the inferior colliculus (CIC) or the ipsilateral lateral lemniscus (LL) in the presence of kynurenic acid. Deafferentation led to a 24 mV depolarizing shift in the IPSC equilibrium potential within 1 d of deafferentation. As a consequence, there was a large reduction of IPSC amplitude at a holding potential of -20 mV in neurons from bilaterally ablated animals. Furthermore, both afferent pathways displayed a 50% reduction of the inhibitory synaptic conductance after deafferentation, indicating that driving force was not solely responsible for the decline in IPSC amplitude. When paired pulses were delivered to the LL or CIC pathway in control neurons, the evoked IPSCs exhibited facilitation. However, paired pulse facilitation was nearly eliminated after deafferentation. Thus, normal innervation affects inhibitory synaptic strength by regulating postsynaptic chloride homeostasis and presynaptic transmitter release properties.

NMDA and AMPA receptors in the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus shape binaural responses in rat inferior colliculus

Binaural responses of single neurons in the rat's central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC) were recorded before and after local injection of excitatory amino acid receptor antagonists (either 1,2, 3,4-tetrahydro-6-nitro-2,3-dioxo-benzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide disodium [NBQX], (+/-)-3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)-propyl-1-phosphonic acid [CPP], 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione [CNQX], or (+/-)-2amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid [APV]) into the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (DNLL). Responses were evoked by clicks delivered separately to the two ears at interaural time delays between -1.0 and +30 ms (positive values referring to ipsilateral leading contralateral click pairs). The neurons in our sample were excited by contralateral stimulation and inhibited by ipsilateral stimulation, and the probability of action potentials was reduced as the ipsilateral stimulus was advanced. Binaural inhibition resulted in response suppression that lasted up to 30 ms. Injection of excitatory amino acid antagonists into the DNLL contralateral to the recording site reduced the strength of binaural inhibition in the ICC. The alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor antagonist NBQX preferentially affected responses at small interaural time intervals (0-1.0 ms), whereas the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist CPP preferentially affected responses at longer intervals (1-30 ms). Both CNQX and APV produced a release from binaural inhibition, but neither drug was selective for specific intervals. The data support the idea that binaural inhibition in the rat ICC is influenced by both AMPA and NMDA receptor-mediated excitatory events in the contralateral DNLL. The results suggest that the AMPA receptors contribute selectively to the initial component of binaural inhibition and the NMDA receptors to a longer lasting component.

Sound duration selectivity in the pallid bat inferior colliculus

Neurons selective for sound duration have been reported in the auditory midbrain and cortex of several specialized vertebrate species that process behaviorally relevant signals of stereotypic duration. This study examines duration selectivity in the inferior colliculus (IC) of the pallid bat to determine if this selectivity is limited to regions that serve echolocation, or if it extends to low-frequency regions that serve passive listening. It also focuses on the temporal response properties of duration-selective neurons to elucidate mechanisms that may underlie the creation of this selectivity. Of 140 neurons tested, 36% were selective for short durations of </=7 ms, and acted as short-pass or bandpass duration filters. Sixteen percent, termed long duration neurons, differed in that they required minimum sound durations of 5-50 ms before responding, and all acted as long-pass duration filters. Short duration neurons were equally common in the high-frequency region serving echolocation and the lateral low-frequency region that serves passive listening, indicating that selectivity for short duration sounds was not associated only with the specialized function of echolocation. Long duration neurons were most common in the medial low-frequency region IC. Selectivity for short and long duration sounds was therefore not uniformly distributed across the IC. Analyses of the temporal response properties of short duration neurons, and the application of bicuculline to block gamma-aminobutyric acid-A receptors, were used to infer the synaptic interactions that underlie the creation of duration selectivity, the role of inhibition in its creation, and whether a coincidence mechanism proposed by Casseday et al. (Science 264 (1994) 847-850) is consistent with the behavior of the duration-selective neurons recorded in the pallid bat IC. Present results suggest that while some neurons do behave in a manner that is consistent with the coincidence mechanism, the behaviors of others suggest that more than one mechanism may create a selectivity for short duration sounds.

Conditioned enhancement and suppression in the developing auditory midbrain

Neural responses in the adult central auditory system to binaural stimuli can be altered by preceding acoustic events, including auditory motion. To determine whether the juvenile auditory system also exhibits this feature, we have examined interaural level difference (ILD) processing in the developing gerbil. A long binaural stimulus was followed without interruption by modulation of the level difference (virtual acoustic motion), which in turn was followed smoothly by a new steady state ILD. Auditory responses of single neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) were assessed for sensitivity to the final steady state ILD. The response of EI neurons (excited by contralateral stimulation and inhibited ipsilaterally) was examined at postnatal (P) days 17-18, P24-25, and in adult animals. In adult animals, a sudden reduction of the inhibitory stimulus level resulted in a long-lasting (median = 4.3 s) enhanced discharge rate (conditioned enhancement). In P17-18 animals, conditioned enhancement only lasted for 1.2 s. When the inhibitory stimulus level was suddenly increased, adult neurons often displayed a conditioned suppression of discharge rate (median = 4.5 s), whereas P17-18 neurons remained suppressed for a much briefer period (median = 1.2 s). Moreover, the difference between conditioned responses and control discharge rates was three-four times greater in adult neurons compared to those recorded in P17-25 animals. Because conditioned responses are sensitive to the relative balance of contralateral excitation and ipsilateral inhibition, we examined the relationship between excitatory and inhibitory thresholds. In adult animals, excitatory thresholds were an average of 12 dB lower than inhibitory thresholds, while at P17-25 excitatory and inhibitory thresholds were roughly the same. These results indicate that computational properties of juvenile and adult IC neurons differ quantitatively, and this may reflect an imbalance between excitation and inhibition. The developmental differences described herein may limit the ability of young animals to locate a sound source with the latency and accuracy of an adult.

Transformation of binaural response properties in the ascending auditory pathway: influence of time-varying interaural phase disparity

Transformation of binaural response properties in the ascending auditory pathway: influence of time-varying interaural phase disparity. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 3062-3076, 1998. Previous studies demonstrated that tuning of inferior colliculus (IC) neurons to interaural phase disparity (IPD) is often profoundly influenced by temporal variation of IPD, which simulates the binaural cue produced by a moving sound source. To determine whether sensitivity to simulated motion arises in IC or at an earlier stage of binaural processing we compared responses in IC with those of two major IPD-sensitive neuronal classes in the superior olivary complex (SOC), neurons whose discharges were phase locked (PL) to tonal stimuli and those that were nonphase locked (NPL). Time-varying IPD stimuli consisted of binaural beats, generated by presenting tones of slightly different frequencies to the two ears, and interaural phase modulation (IPM), generated by presenting a pure tone to one ear and a phase modulated tone to the other. IC neurons and NPL-SOC neurons were more sharply tuned to time-varying than to static IPD, whereas PL-SOC neurons were essentially uninfluenced by the mode of stimulus presentation. Preferred IPD was generally similar in responses to static and time-varying IPD for all unit populations. A few IC neurons were highly influenced by the direction and rate of simulated motion, but the major effect for most IC neurons and all SOC neurons was a linear shift of preferred IPD at high rates-attributable to response latency. Most IC and NPL-SOC neurons were strongly influenced by IPM stimuli simulating motion through restricted ranges of azimuth; simulated motion through partially overlapping azimuthal ranges elicited discharge profiles that were highly discontiguous, indicating that the response associated with a particular IPD is dependent on preceding portions of the stimulus. In contrast, PL-SOC responses tracked instantaneous IPD throughout the trajectory of simulated motion, resulting in highly contiguous discharge profiles for overlapping stimuli. This finding indicates that responses of PL-SOC units to time-varying IPD reflect only instantaneous IPD with no additional influence of dynamic stimulus attributes. Thus the neuronal representation of auditory spatial information undergoes a major transformation as interaural delay is initially processed in the SOC and subsequently reprocessed in IC. The finding that motion sensitivity in IC emerges from motion-insensitive input suggests that information about change of position is crucial to spatial processing at higher levels of the auditory system.

Commissural and lemniscal synaptic input to the gerbil inferior colliculus

The central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC) receives direct inputs, bilaterally, from all auditory brain stem nuclear groups. To evaluate the contribution made to gerbil ICC neuron physiology by two major afferent pathways, we examined the synaptic responses evoked by direct stimulation of the commissure of the inferior colliculus (CIC) and the ipsilateral lateral lemniscus (LL). Frontal midbrain slices were obtained from postnatal day (P) 9-P19 gerbils, and whole cell recordings were made under current- (n = 22) or voltage-clamp (n = 52) conditions. Excitatory and inhibitory synaptic responses were characterized by sequentially exposing the slice to ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists [6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX) + aminophosphonpentanoic acid (AP-5), or kynurenic acid)], a gamma-aminobutryic acid type A receptor antagonist (bicuculline), and a glycine receptor antagonist (strychnine). In current clamp, LL stimulation typically produced a short latency depolarization followed by a longer duration hyperpolarization. The depolarization was abolished by AP-5 + CNQX, and the remaining inhibitory potential displayed either bicuculline or strychnine sensitivity. In voltage clamp, 79% of ICC neurons displayed synaptic currents after stimulation of each pathway. The synaptic currents were typically complex waveforms, and ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists reduced inward currents at a holding potential of -80 mV in the majority of neurons. In addition, this treatment reduced outward synaptic currents at a holding potential of -20 mV, indicating that inhibitory interneuronal input was often activated by LL or CIC afferents. A minority of neurons had synaptic currents that were unaffected by glutamate receptor antagonists, but it was more common for CIC-evoked currents to be unaffected (38%) rather than LL-evoked currents (22%). The CIC provided a strong inhibitory input that was almost exclusively GABAergic, whereas the LL inhibition often included a glycinergic component. These experiments have shown that the CIC provides a major glutamatergic and GABAergic input to most ICC neurons. However, much of the inhibitory input from both the CIC and the LL appears to be mediated by interneuronal connections.

GABAergic inhibition influences auditory motion-direction sensitivity in barn owls

Many neurons in the barn owl's inferior colliculus (IC) exhibit auditory motion-direction sensitivity (MDS), i.e., they respond more to motion of a sound source in one direction than to motion in the opposite direction. We investigated the cellular mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of auditory MDS by microiontophoretically applying gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) or the GABA-antagonist bicuculline methiodide (BMI) while recording from neurons in the owl's midbrain. In most cases GABA reduced the overall firing rate, whereas BMI increased it. In addition, 29% of the motion-direction-sensitive cells completely lost their selectivity for the direction of auditory movement during administration of BMI. It had been proposed that auditory MDS in the owl is due to inhibition. The present results show that GABAergic inhibition plays a role in the strengthening of MDS. We discuss the data within the framework of the acoustic motion detector and with respect to microiontophoretic studies on visual motion detection and on inhibitory mechanisms in the inferior colliculus.

Modulation of calcium by inhibitory systems in the developing auditory midbrain

Inhibitory synaptic transmission is of fundamental importance during the maturation of central auditory circuits, and their subsequent ability to process acoustic information. The present study investigated the manner in which inhibitory transmission regulates intracellular free calcium levels in the gerbil inferior colliculus using a brain slice preparation. Inhibitory and excitatory postsynaptic potentials were evoked by electrical stimulation of the ascending afferents at the level of the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus. Pharmacologically isolated inhibitory synaptic potentials were able to attenuate a calcium rise in collicular neurons that was generated by depolarizing current injection. In addition, GABA(A) and glycine receptor antagonists typically led to an increase of calcium in collicular neurons during electrical stimulation of the ascending afferent pathway at the level of the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus. Bath application of GABA or muscimol, a GABA(A) receptor agonist, evoked a brief hyperpolarization followed by a long-lasting depolarization in inferior colliculus neurons. This treatment also induced a transient calcium increase that correlated with the membrane depolarization phase. Baclofen, a GABA(B) receptor agonist, had no effect on either membrane potential or calcium levels. Ratiometric measures indicated that the muscimol-evoked rise in calcium was approximately 150 nM above basal levels. The muscimol-evoked responses were completely antagonized by bicuculline and attenuated by picrotoxin. Together, these results suggest that inhibitory synaptic transmission participates in the regulation of postsynaptic calcium during the developmental period. Inhibitory transmission may attenuate a calcium influx that is evoked by excitatory synapses, but it can also produce a modest influx of calcium when activated alone. These mechanisms may help to explain the influence of inhibitory transmission on the development of postsynaptic properties.