Corticofugal Modulation of Multi-Parametric Auditory Selectivity in the Midbrain of the Big Brown Bat

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 2509-2516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Zhou ◽  
Philip H.-S. Jen
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Inferior Colliculus ◽  
Cortical Neuron ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Eptesicus Fuscus ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Cortical Electrical Stimulation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Corticofugal Modulation

Corticofugal modulation of sub-cortical auditory selectivity has been shown previously in mammals for frequency, amplitude, time, and direction domains in separate studies. As such, these studies do not show if multi-parametric corticofugal modulation can be mediated through the same sub-cortical neuron. Here we specifically studied corticofugal modulation of best frequency (BF), best amplitude (BA), and best azimuth (BAZ) at the same neuron in the inferior colliculus of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, using focal electrical stimulation in the auditory cortex. Among 53 corticofugally inhibited collicular neurons examined, cortical electrical stimulation produced a shift of all three measurements (i.e., BF, BA, and BAZ) toward the value of stimulated cortical neuron in 13 (24.5%) neurons, two measurements (i.e., BF and BAZ or BA and BAZ) in 19 (36%) neurons, and one measurement in 16 (30%) neurons. Cortical electrical stimulation did not shift any of these measurements in the remaining five (9.5%) neurons. Corticofugally induced collicular BF shift was symmetrical, whereas the shift in collicular BA or BAZ was asymmetrical. The amount of shift in each measurement was significantly correlated with each measurement difference between recorded collicular and stimulated cortical neurons. However, shifts of three measurements were not correlated with each other. Furthermore, average measurement difference between collicular and cortical neurons was larger for collicular neurons with measurement shifts than for those without shifts. These data indicate that multi-parametric corticofugal modulation can be mediated through the same subcortical neuron based on the difference in auditory selectivity between subcortical and cortical neurons.

Reorganization of the Frequency Map of the Auditory Cortex Evoked by Cortical Electrical Stimulation in the Big Brown Bat

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1856-1863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed A. Chowdhury ◽  
Nobuo Suga
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Acoustic Stimulus ◽  
Primary Auditory Cortex ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Tuning Curves ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Frequency Map

In a search phase of echolocation, big brown bats, Eptesicus fuscus, emit biosonar pulses at a rate of 10/s and listen to echoes. When a short acoustic stimulus was repetitively delivered at this rate, the reorganization of the frequency map of the primary auditory cortex took place at and around the neurons tuned to the frequency of the acoustic stimulus. Such reorganization became larger when the acoustic stimulus was paired with electrical stimulation of the cortical neurons tuned to the frequency of the acoustic stimulus. This reorganization was mainly due to the decrease in the best frequencies of the neurons that had best frequencies slightly higher than those of the electrically stimulated cortical neurons or the frequency of the acoustic stimulus. Neurons with best frequencies slightly lower than those of the acoustically and/or electrically stimulated neurons slightly increased their best frequencies. These changes resulted in the over-representation of repetitively delivered acoustic stimulus. Because the over-representation resulted in under-representation of other frequencies, the changes increased the contrast of the neural representation of the acoustic stimulus. Best frequency shifts for over-representation were associated with sharpening of frequency-tuning curves of 25% of the neurons studied. Because of the increases in both the contrast of neural representation and the sharpness of tuning, the over-representation of the acoustic stimulus is accompanied with an improvement of analysis of the acoustic stimulus.

Neural Selectivity and Tuning for Sinusoidal Frequency Modulations in the Inferior Colliculus of the Big Brown Bat, Eptesicus fuscus

1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 1595-1605 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Casseday ◽  
Ellen Covey ◽  
Benedikt Grothe
Keyword(s):  
Inferior Colliculus ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Eptesicus Fuscus ◽  
Fm Signals ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Pure Tones ◽  
Sinusoidal Frequency Modulations ◽  
Frequency Modulations ◽  
Neural Selectivity

Casseday, John H., Ellen Covey, and Benedikt Grothe. Neural selectivity and tuning for sinusoidal frequency modulations in the inferior colliculus of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 1595–1605, 1997. Most communication sounds and most echolocation sounds, including those used by the big brown bat ( Eptesicus fuscus), contain frequency-modulated (FM) components, including cyclical FM. Because previous studies have shown that some neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of this bat respond to linear FM sweeps but not to pure tones or noise, we asked whether these or other neurons are specialized for conveying information about cyclical FM signals. In unanesthetized bats, we tested the response of 116 neurons in the IC to pure tones, noise with various bandwidths, single linear FM sweeps, sinusoidally amplitude-modulated signals, and sinusoidally frequency-modulated (SFM) signals. With the use of these stimuli, 20 neurons (17%) responded only to SFM, and 10 (9%) responded best to SFM but also responded to one other test stimulus. We refer to the total 26% of neurons that responded best to SFM as SFM-selective neurons. Fifty-nine neurons (51%) responded about equally well to SFM and other stimuli, and 27 (23%) did not respond to SFM but did respond to other stimuli. Most SFM-selective neurons responded to a limited range of modulation rates and a limited range of modulation depths. The range of modulationrates over which individual neurons responded was 5–170 Hz( n = 20). Thus SFM-selective neurons respond to low modulation rates. The depths of modulations to which the neurons responded ranged from ±0.4 to ±19 kHz ( n = 15). Half of the SFM-selective neurons did not respond to the first cycle of SFM. This finding suggests that the mechanism for selective response to SFM involves neural delays and coincidence detectors in which the response to one part of the SFM cycle coincides in time either with the response to a later part of the SFM cycle or with the response to the first part of the next cycle. The SFM-selective neurons in the IC responded to a lower and more limited range of SFM rates than do neurons in the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus of this bat. Because the FM components of biological sounds usually have low rates of modulation, we suggest that the tuning of these neurons is related to biologically important sound parameters. The tuning could be used to detect FM in echolocation signals, modulations in high-frequency sounds that are generated by wing beats of some beetles, or social communication sounds of Eptesicus.

Stimulation-mapping of the upper human auditory pathway

1973 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald R. Tasker ◽  
L. W. Organ
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Inferior Colliculus ◽  
Primary Auditory Cortex ◽  
Auditory Pathway ◽  
Association Cortex ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Medial Geniculate ◽  
Stimulation Of

✓ Auditory hallucinations were produced by electrical stimulation of the human upper brain stem during stereotaxic operations. The responses were confined to stimulation of the inferior colliculus, brachium of the inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body, and auditory radiations. Anatomical confirmation of an auditory site was obtained in one patient. The hallucination produced was a low-pitched nonspecific auditory “paresthesia” independent of the structure stimulated, the conditions of stimulation, or sonotopic factors. The effect was identical to that reported from stimulating the primary auditory cortex, and virtually all responses were contralateral. These observations have led to the following generalizations concerning electrical stimulation of the somesthetic, auditory, vestibular, and visual pathways within the human brain stem: the hallucination induced in each is the response to comparable conditions of stimulation, is nonspecific, independent of stimulation site, confined to the primary pathway concerned, chiefly contralateral, and identical to that induced by stimulating the corresponding primary auditory cortex. No sensory responses are found in the brain stem corresponding to those from the sensory association cortex.

Development of Reorganization of the Auditory Cortex Caused by Fear Conditioning: Effect of Atropine

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 1904-1909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqing Ji ◽  
Nobuo Suga
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Acetylcholine Receptors ◽  
Conditioning Session ◽  
Acoustic Stimulation ◽  
Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors ◽  
Response Curves ◽  
Big Brown Bat ◽  
Frequency Map

Reorganization of the frequency map in the central auditory system is based on shifts in the best frequencies (BFs; hereafter, BF shifts), together with the frequency-response curves, of auditory neurons. In the big brown bat, conditioning with acoustic stimulation followed by electric leg-stimulation causes BF shifts of collicular and cortical neurons. The collicular BF shift develops quickly and is short term, whereas the cortical BF shift develops slowly and is long term. The acetycholine level in the auditory cortex must be high during conditioning to develop these BF shifts. We studied the effect of atropine (an antagonist of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors) applied to the auditory cortex on the development of the long-term cortical BF shift in the awake bat caused by a 30-min conditioning session. We found 1) the cortical BF shift starts to develop ∼15 min after the onset of the conditioning, gradually increases over 60 min, and reaches a plateau, 2) the cortical BF shift changes from short to long term ∼45 min after the onset of the conditioning, 3) the cortical BF shift can plateau at different frequencies between the BF of a given neuron in the control condition and the frequency of the conditioning tone, 4) the maximum BF shift is determined ∼70 min after the onset of the conditioning, and 5) acetylcholine plays an important role in the development of the cortical BF shift. Its role ends ∼180 min after the onset of the conditioning.

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