Biophysical basis of the sound analog membrane potential that underlies coincidence detection in the barn owl

Enhancement of phase-locking in rodents. II. An axonal recording study in chinchilla

The trapezoid body (TB) contains axons of neurons residing in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN) that provide excitatory and inhibitory inputs to the main monaural and binaural nuclei in the superior olivary complex (SOC). To understand the monaural and binaural response properties of neurons in the medial and lateral superior olive (MSO and LSO), it is important to characterize the temporal firing properties of these inputs. Because of its exceptional low-frequency hearing, the chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) is one of the widely used small animal models for studies of hearing. However, the characterization of the output of its ventral cochlear nucleus to the nuclei of the SOC is fragmentary. We obtained responses of TB axons to stimuli typically used in binaural studies and compared these responses to those of auditory nerve (AN) fibers, with a focus on temporal coding. We found enhancement of phase-locking and entrainment, i.e., the ability of a neuron to fire action potentials at a certain stimulus phase for nearly every stimulus period, in TB axons relative to AN fibers. Enhancement in phase-locking and entrainment are quantitatively more modest than in the cat but greater than in the gerbil. As in these species, these phenomena occur not only in low-frequency neurons stimulated at their characteristic frequency but also in neurons tuned to higher frequencies when stimulated with low-frequency tones, to which complex phase-locking behavior with multiple modes of firing per stimulus cycle is frequently observed.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The sensitivity of neurons to small time differences in sustained sounds to both ears is important for binaural hearing, and this sensitivity is critically dependent on phase-locking in the monaural pathways. Although studies in cat showed a marked improvement in phase-locking from the peripheral to the central auditory nervous system, the evidence in rodents is mixed. Here, we recorded from AN and TB of chinchilla and found temporal enhancement, though more limited than in cat.

Structure and dynamics that specialize neurons for high-frequency coincidence detection in the barn owl nucleus laminaris

A principal cue for sound source localization is the difference in arrival times of sounds at an animal's two ears (interaural time difference, ITD). Neurons that process ITDs are specialized to compare the timing of inputs with submillisecond precision. In the barn owl, ITD processing begins in the nucleus laminaris (NL) region of the auditory brain stem. Remarkably, NL neurons are sensitive to ITDs in high-frequency sounds (kilohertz-range). This contrasts with ITD-based sound localization in analogous regions in mammals where ITD sensitivity is typically restricted to lower-frequency sounds. Guided by previous experiments and modeling studies of tone-evoked responses of NL neurons, we propose NL neurons achieve high-frequency ITD sensitivity if they respond selectively to the small-amplitude, high-frequency oscillations in their inputs, and remain relatively non-responsive to mean input level. We use a biophysically based model to study the effects of soma-axon coupling on dynamics and function in NL neurons. First, we show that electrical separation of the soma from the axon region in the neuron enhances high-frequency ITD sensitivity. This soma-axon coupling configuration promotes linear subthreshold dynamics and rapid spike initiation, making the model more responsive to input oscillations, rather than mean input level. Second, we provide new evidence for the essential role of phasic dynamics for high-frequency neural coincidence detection. Transforming our model to the phasic firing mode further tunes the model to respond selectively to the oscillating inputs that carry ITD information. Similar structural and dynamical mechanisms specialize mammalian auditory brain stem neurons for ITD sensitivity, and thus, our work identifies common principles of ITD processing and neural coincidence detection across species and for sounds at widely different frequencies.

Robustness of neuronal tuning to binaural sound localization cues against age-related loss of inhibitory synaptic inputs

Sound localization relies on minute differences in the timing and intensity of sound arriving at both ears. Neurons of the lateral superior olive (LSO) in the brainstem process these interaural disparities by precisely detecting excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs. Aging generally induces selective loss of inhibitory synaptic transmission along the entire auditory pathways, including the reduction of inhibitory afferents to LSO. Electrophysiological recordings in animals, however, reported only minor functional changes in aged LSO. The perplexing discrepancy between anatomical and physiological observations suggests a role for activity-dependent plasticity that would help neurons retain their binaural tuning function despite loss of inhibitory inputs. To explore this hypothesis, we use a computational model of LSO to investigate mechanisms underlying the observed functional robustness against age-related loss of inhibitory inputs. The LSO model is an integrate-and-fire type enhanced with a small amount of low-voltage activated potassium conductance and driven with (in)homogeneous Poissonian inputs. Without synaptic input loss, model spike rates varied smoothly with interaural time and level differences, replicating empirical tuning properties of LSO. By reducing the number of inhibitory afferents to mimic age-related loss of inhibition, overall spike rates increased, which negatively impacted binaural tuning performance, measured as modulation depth and neuronal discriminability. To simulate a recovery process compensating for the loss of inhibitory fibers, the strength of remaining inhibitory inputs was increased. By this modification, effects of inhibition loss on binaural tuning were considerably weakened, leading to an improvement of functional performance. These neuron-level observations were further confirmed by population modeling, in which binaural tuning properties of multiple LSO neurons were varied according to empirical measurements. These results demonstrate the plausibility that homeostatic plasticity could effectively counteract known age-dependent loss of inhibitory fibers in LSO and suggest that behavioral degradation of sound localization might originate from changes occurring more centrally.

Neural Maps of Interaural Time Difference in the American Alligator: A Stable Feature in Modern Archosaurs

Detection of interaural time differences (ITDs) is crucial for sound localization in most vertebrates. The current view is that optimal computational strategies of ITD detection depend mainly on head size and available frequencies, although evolutionary history should also be taken into consideration. In archosaurs, which include birds and crocodiles, the brainstem nucleus laminaris (NL) developed into the critical structure for ITD detection. In birds, ITDs are mapped in an orderly array or place code, whereas in the mammalian medial superior olive, the analog of NL, maps are not found. As yet, in crocodilians, topographical representations have not been identified. However, nontopographic representations of ITD cannot be excluded due to different anatomical and ethological features of birds and crocodiles. Therefore, we measured ITD-dependent responses in the NL of anesthetized American alligators of either sex and identified the location of the recording sites by lesions made after recording. The measured extracellular field potentials, or neurophonics, were strongly ITD tuned, and their preferred ITDs correlated with the position in NL. As in birds, delay lines, which compensate for external time differences, formed maps of ITD. The broad distributions of best ITDs within narrow frequency bands were not consistent with an optimal coding model. We conclude that the available acoustic cues and the architecture of the acoustic system in early archosaurs led to a stable and similar organization in today's birds and crocodiles, although physical features, such as internally coupled ears, head size, or shape, and audible frequency range, vary among the two groups.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Interaural time difference (ITD) is an important cue for sound localization, and the optimal strategies for encoding ITD in neuronal populations are the subject of ongoing debate. We show that alligators form maps of ITD very similar to birds, suggesting that their common archosaur ancestor reached a stable coding solution different from mammals. Mammals and diapsids evolved tympanic hearing independently, and local optima can be reached in evolution that are not considered by global optimal coding models. Thus, the presence of ITD maps in the brainstem may reflect a local optimum in evolutionary development. Our results underline the importance of comparative animal studies and show that optimal models must be viewed in the light of evolutionary processes.

Dynamics of synaptic extracellular field potentials in the nucleus laminaris of the barn owl

Synaptic currents are frequently assumed to make a major contribution to the extracellular field potential (EFP). However, in any neuronal population, the explicit separation of synaptic sources from other contributions such as postsynaptic spikes remains a challenge. Here we take advantage of the simple organization of the barn owl nucleus laminaris (NL) in the auditory brain stem to isolate synaptic currents through the iontophoretic application of the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-receptor antagonist 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6-nitro-2,3-dioxo-benzo[ f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide (NBQX). Responses to auditory stimulation show that the temporal dynamics of the evoked synaptic contributions to the EFP are consistent with synaptic short-term depression (STD). The estimated time constants of an STD model fitted to the data are similar to the fast time constants reported from in vitro experiments in the chick. Overall, the putative synaptic EFPs in the barn owl NL are significant but small (<1% change of the variance by NBQX). This result supports the hypothesis that the EFP in NL is generated mainly by axonal spikes, in contrast to most other neuronal systems. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Synaptic currents are assumed to make a major contribution to the extracellular field potential in the brain, but it is hard to directly isolate these synaptic components. Here we take advantage of the simple organization of the barn owl nucleus laminaris in the auditory brain stem to isolate synaptic currents through the iontophoretic application of a synaptic blocker. We show that the responses are consistent with a simple model of short-term synaptic depression.

Contribution of action potentials to the extracellular field potential in the nucleus laminaris of barn owl

Extracellular field potentials (EFP) are widely used to evaluate in vivo neural activity, but identification of multiple sources and their relative contributions is often ambiguous, making the interpretation of the EFP difficult. We have therefore analyzed a model EFP from a simple brainstem circuit with separable pre- and postsynaptic components to determine whether we could isolate its sources. Our previous papers had shown that the barn owl neurophonic largely originates with spikes from input axons and synapses that terminate on the neurons in the nucleus laminaris (NL) (Kuokkanen PT, Wagner H, Ashida G, Carr CE, Kempter R. J Neurophysiol 104: 2274-2290, 2010; Kuokkanen PT, Ashida G, Carr CE, Wagner H, Kempter R. J Neurophysiol 110: 117-130, 2013; McColgan T, Liu J, Kuokkanen PT, Carr CE, Wagner H, Kempter R. eLife 6: e26106, 2017). To determine how much the postsynaptic NL neurons contributed to the neurophonic, we recorded EFP responses in NL in vivo. Power spectral analyses showed that a small spectral component of the evoked response, between 200 and 700 Hz, could be attributed to the NL neurons' spikes, while nucleus magnocellularis (NM) spikes dominate the EFP at frequencies ≳1 kHz. Thus, spikes of NL neurons and NM axons contribute to the EFP in NL in distinct frequency bands. We conclude that if the spectral components of source types are different and if their activities can be selectively modulated, the identification of EFP sources is possible. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Extracellular field potentials (EFPs) generate clinically important signals, but their sources are incompletely understood. As a model, we have analyzed the auditory neurophonic in the barn owl's nucleus laminaris. There the EFP originates predominantly from spiking in the afferent axons, with spectral power ≳1 kHz, while postsynaptic laminaris neurons contribute little. In conclusion, the identification of EFP sources is possible if they have different spectral components and if their activities can be modulated selectively.

Neural Correlates of the Binaural Masking Level Difference in Human Frequency-Following Responses

The binaural masking level difference (BMLD) is an auditory phenomenon where binaural tone-in-noise detection is improved when the phase of either signal or noise is inverted in one of the ears (SπNo or SoNπ, respectively), relative to detection when signal and noise are in identical phase at each ear (SoNo). Processing related to BMLDs and interaural time differences has been confirmed in the auditory brainstem of non-human mammals; in the human auditory brainstem, phase-locked neural responses elicited by BMLD stimuli have not been systematically examined across signal-to-noise ratio. Behavioral and physiological testing was performed in three binaural stimulus conditions: SoNo, SπNo, and SoNπ. BMLDs at 500 Hz were obtained from 14 young, normal-hearing adults (ages 21-26). Physiological BMLDs used the frequency-following response (FFR), a scalp-recorded auditory evoked potential dependent on sustained phase-locked neural activity; FFR tone-in-noise detection thresholds were used to calculate physiological BMLDs. FFR BMLDs were significantly smaller (poorer) than behavioral BMLDs, and FFR BMLDs did not reflect a physiological release from masking, on average. Raw FFR amplitude showed substantial reductions in the SπNo condition relative to SoNo and SoNπ conditions, consistent with negative effects of phase summation from left and right ear FFRs. FFR amplitude differences between stimulus conditions (e.g., SoNo amplitude-SπNo amplitude) were significantly predictive of behavioral SπNo BMLDs; individuals with larger amplitude differences had larger (better) behavioral B MLDs and individuals with smaller amplitude differences had smaller (poorer) behavioral B MLDs. These data indicate a role for sustained phase-locked neural activity in BMLDs of humans and are the first to show predictive relationships between behavioral BMLDs and human brainstem responses.

The Role of Conduction Delay in Creating Sensitivity to Interaural Time Differences

Axons from the nucleus magnocellularis (NM) and their targets in nucleus laminaris (NL) form the circuit responsible for encoding interaural time difference (ITD). In barn owls, NL receives bilateral inputs from NM, such that axons from the ipsilateral NM enter NL dorsally, while contralateral axons enter from the ventral side. These afferents act as delay lines to create maps of ITD in NL. Since delay-line inputs are characterized by a precise latency to auditory stimulation, but the postsynaptic coincidence detectors respond to ongoing phase difference, we asked whether the latencies of a local group of axons were identical, or varied by multiples of the inverse of the frequency they respond to, i.e., to multiples of 2π phase. Intracellular recordings from NM axons were used to measure delay-line latencies in NL. Systematic shifts in conduction delay within NL accounted for the maps of ITD, but recorded latencies of individual inputs at nearby locations could vary by 2π or 4π. Therefore microsecond precision is achieved through sensitivity to phase delays, rather than absolute latencies. We propose that the auditory system "coarsely" matches ipsilateral and contralateral latencies using physical delay lines, so that inputs arrive at NL at about the same time, and then "finely" matches latency modulo 2π to achieve microsecond ITD precision.

Minimal conductance-based model of auditory coincidence detector neurons

Sound localization is a fundamental sensory function of a wide variety of animals. The interaural time difference (ITD), an important cue for sound localization, is computed in the auditory brainstem. In our previous modeling study, we introduced a two-compartment Hodgkin-Huxley type model to investigate how cellular and synaptic specializations may contribute to precise ITD computation of the barn owl's auditory coincidence detector neuron. Although our model successfully reproduced fundamental physiological properties observed in vivo, it was unsuitable for mathematical analyses and large scale simulations because of a number of nonlinear variables. In the present study, we reduce our former model into three types of conductance-based integrate-and-fire (IF) models. We test their electrophysiological properties using data from published in vivo and in vitro studies. Their robustness to parameter changes and computational efficiencies are also examined. Our numerical results suggest that the single-compartment active IF model is superior to other reduced models in terms of physiological reproducibility and computational performance. This model will allow future theoretical studies that use more rigorous mathematical analysis and network simulations.

A model of the medial superior olive explains spatiotemporal features of local field potentials

Local field potentials are important indicators of in vivo neural activity. Sustained, phase-locked, sound-evoked extracellular fields in the mammalian auditory brainstem, known as the auditory neurophonic, reflect the activity of neurons in the medial superior olive (MSO). We develop a biophysically based model of the neurophonic that accounts for features of in vivo extracellular recordings in the cat auditory brainstem. By making plausible idealizations regarding the spatial symmetry of MSO neurons and the temporal synchrony of their afferent inputs, we reduce the challenging problem of computing extracellular potentials in a 3D volume conductor to a one-dimensional problem. We find that postsynaptic currents in bipolar MSO neuron models generate extracellular voltage responses that strikingly resemble in vivo recordings. Simulations reproduce distinctive spatiotemporal features of the in vivo neurophonic response to monaural pure tones: large oscillations (hundreds of microvolts to millivolts), broad spatial reach (millimeter scale), and a dipole-like spatial profile. We also explain how somatic inhibition and the relative timing of bilateral excitation may shape the spatial profile of the neurophonic. We observe in simulations, and find supporting evidence in in vivo data, that coincident excitatory inputs on both dendrites lead to a drastically reduced spatial reach of the neurophonic. This outcome surprises because coincident inputs are thought to evoke maximal firing rates in MSO neurons, and it reconciles previously puzzling evoked potential results in humans and animals. The success of our model, which has no axon or spike-generating sodium currents, suggests that MSO spikes do not contribute appreciably to the neurophonic.

Coincidence detection in the medial superior olive: mechanistic implications of an analysis of input spiking patterns

Coincidence detection by binaural neurons in the medial superior olive underlies sensitivity to interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural correlation (ρ). It is unclear whether this process is akin to a counting of individual coinciding spikes, or rather to a correlation of membrane potential waveforms resulting from converging inputs from each side. We analyzed spike trains of axons of the cat trapezoid body (TB) and auditory nerve (AN) in a binaural coincidence scheme. ITD was studied by delaying "ipsi-" vs. "contralateral" inputs; ρ was studied by using responses to different noises. We varied the number of inputs; the monaural and binaural threshold and the coincidence window duration. We examined physiological plausibility of output "spike trains" by comparing their rate and tuning to ITD and ρ to those of binaural cells. We found that multiple inputs are required to obtain a plausible output spike rate. In contrast to previous suggestions, monaural threshold almost invariably needed to exceed binaural threshold. Elevation of the binaural threshold to values larger than 2 spikes caused a drastic decrease in rate for a short coincidence window. Longer coincidence windows allowed a lower number of inputs and higher binaural thresholds, but decreased the depth of modulation. Compared to AN fibers, TB fibers allowed higher output spike rates for a low number of inputs, but also generated more monaural coincidences. We conclude that, within the parameter space explored, the temporal patterns of monaural fibers require convergence of multiple inputs to achieve physiological binaural spike rates; that monaural coincidences have to be suppressed relative to binaural ones; and that the neuron has to be sensitive to single binaural coincidences of spikes, for a number of excitatory inputs per side of 10 or less. These findings suggest that the fundamental operation in the mammalian binaural circuit is coincidence counting of single binaural input spikes.

Theoretical foundations of the sound analog membrane potential that underlies coincidence detection in the barn owl

A wide variety of neurons encode temporal information via phase-locked spikes. In the avian auditory brainstem, neurons in the cochlear nucleus magnocellularis (NM) send phase-locked synaptic inputs to coincidence detector neurons in the nucleus laminaris (NL) that mediate sound localization. Previous modeling studies suggested that converging phase-locked synaptic inputs may give rise to a periodic oscillation in the membrane potential of their target neuron. Recent physiological recordings in vivo revealed that owl NL neurons changed their spike rates almost linearly with the amplitude of this oscillatory potential. The oscillatory potential was termed the sound analog potential, because of its resemblance to the waveform of the stimulus tone. The amplitude of the sound analog potential recorded in NL varied systematically with the interaural time difference (ITD), which is one of the most important cues for sound localization. In order to investigate the mechanisms underlying ITD computation in the NM-NL circuit, we provide detailed theoretical descriptions of how phase-locked inputs form oscillating membrane potentials. We derive analytical expressions that relate presynaptic, synaptic, and postsynaptic factors to the signal and noise components of the oscillation in both the synaptic conductance and the membrane potential. Numerical simulations demonstrate the validity of the theoretical formulations for the entire frequency ranges tested (1–8 kHz) and potential effects of higher harmonics on NL neurons with low best frequencies (<2 kHz).