scholarly journals Energy Integration Describes Sound-Intensity Coding in an Insect Auditory System

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (23) ◽  
pp. 10434-10448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Gollisch ◽  
Hartmut Schütze ◽  
Jan Benda ◽  
Andreas V. M. Herz
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Clemens ◽  
Nofar Ozeri-Engelhard ◽  
Mala Murthy

AbstractTo faithfully encode complex stimuli, sensory neurons should correct, via adaptation, for stimulus properties that corrupt pattern recognition. Here, we investigate sound intensity adaptation in the Drosophila auditory system, which is largely devoted to processing courtship song. Mechanosensory neurons (JONs) in the antenna are sensitive not only to sound-induced antennal vibrations, but also to wind or gravity, which affect the antenna’s mean position. Song pattern recognition therefore requires adaptation to antennal position (stimulus mean) in addition to sound intensity (stimulus variance). We discover fast variance adaptation in Drosophila JONs, which corrects for background noise over the behaviorally relevant intensity range. We determine where mean and variance adaptation arises and how they interact. A computational model explains our results using a sequence of subtractive and divisive adaptation modules, interleaved by rectification. These results lay the foundation for identifying the molecular and biophysical implementation of adaptation to the statistics of natural sensory stimuli.


2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (7) ◽  
pp. 2280-2288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Wirtssohn ◽  
Bernhard Ronacher

Temporal integration in the auditory system of locusts was quantified by presenting single clicks and click pairs while performing intracellular recordings. Auditory neurons were studied at three processing stages, which form a feed-forward network in the metathoracic ganglion. Receptor neurons and most first-order interneurons (“local neurons”) encode the signal envelope, while second-order interneurons (“ascending neurons”) tend to extract more complex, behaviorally relevant sound features. In different neuron types of the auditory pathway we found three response types: no significant temporal integration (some ascending neurons), leaky energy integration (receptor neurons and some local neurons), and facilitatory processes (some local and ascending neurons). The receptor neurons integrated input over very short time windows (<2 ms). Temporal integration on longer time scales was found at subsequent processing stages, indicative of within-neuron computations and network activity. These different strategies, realized at separate processing stages and in parallel neuronal pathways within one processing stage, could enable the grasshopper's auditory system to evaluate longer time windows and thus to implement temporal filters, while at the same time maintaining a high temporal resolution.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander L Markowitz ◽  
Radha Kalluri

Sound intensity is encoded by auditory neuron subgroups that differ in thresholds and spontaneous rates. Whether variations in neuronal biophysics contributes to this functional diversity is unknown. Because intensity thresholds correlate with synaptic position on sensory hair cells, we combined patch clamping with fiber labeling in semi-intact cochlear preparations in neonatal rats from both sexes. The biophysical properties of auditory neurons vary in a striking spatial gradient with synaptic position. Neurons with high thresholds to injected currents contact hair cells at synaptic positions where neurons with high thresholds to sound-intensity are found in vivo. Alignment between in vitro and in vivo thresholds suggests that biophysical variability contributes to intensity coding. Biophysical gradients were evident at all ages examined, indicating that cell diversity emerges in early post-natal development and persists even after continued maturation. This stability enabled a remarkably successful model for predicting synaptic position based solely on biophysical properties.


2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 1015-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepa L. Ramamurthy ◽  
Gregg H. Recanzone

Inhibition plays a key role in shaping sensory processing in the central auditory system and has been implicated in sculpting receptive field properties such as sound intensity coding and also in shaping temporal patterns of neuronal firing such as onset- or offset-evoked responses. There is substantial evidence supporting a decrease in inhibition throughout the ascending auditory pathway in geriatric animals. We therefore examined intensity coding of onset (ON) and offset (OFF) responses in auditory cortex of aged and young monkeys. A large proportion of cells in the primary auditory cortex (A1) and the caudolateral field (CL) displayed nonmonotonic rate-level functions for OFF responses in addition to nonmonotonic coding of ON responses. Aging differentially affected ON and OFF responses; the magnitude of effects was generally greater for ON responses. In addition to higher firing rates, neurons in old monkeys exhibited a significant increase in the proportion of monotonic rate-level functions and had higher best intensities than those in young monkeys. OFF responses in young monkeys displayed a range of intensity coding relationships with ON responses of the same cells, ranging from highly similar to highly dissimilar. Dissimilarity in ON/OFF coding was greater in CL and was reduced with aging, which was largely explained by a preferential decrease in the percentage of cells with nonmonotonic coding of ON and OFF responses. The changes we observed are consistent with previously demonstrated alterations in inhibition in the ascending auditory pathway of primates and could be involved in age-related deficits in the temporal processing of sounds. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Aging has a major impact on intensity coding of neurons in auditory cortex of rhesus macaques. Neural responses to sound onset and offset were affected to different extents, and their rate-level functions became more mutually similar, which could be accounted for by the loss of nonmonotonic intensity coding in geriatric monkeys. These findings were consistent with weakened inhibition in the central auditory system and could contribute to auditory processing deficits in elderly subjects.


1972 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aage R. Møller

The great number of investigations and advanced developments in neurophysiology and psychoacoustics during recent years have extensively increased our knowledge about the frequency analysis of simple sounds in the peripheral auditory system.New methods have facilitated quantitative measurements of the amplitude of the submicroscopic vibration of a narrow segment of the basilar membrane in anaesthetized animals at physiological sound intensities. The results of these studies have quantitatively confirmed the results of past studies by showing that the basilar membrane has a selectivity with regard to tone frequency. In addition to this, the recent studies have increased our knowledge about the finer details of vibration of the basilar membrane. At the lowest levels used in the recent investigations, i.e. about 70 dB SPL, the selectivity in the 7 kHz region of the basilar membrane was found to be greater than expected on the basis of extrapolation of older data. Moreover, the high frequency slope of the tuning curves of the basilar membrane was found to be particularly steep. The results of these recent studies, furthermore, showed that the basilar membrane vibrates in a non-linear way at intensities within the physiological range. This non-linearity results in a broadening of the selectivity curves of a narrow segment of the basilar membrane when the sound intensity is increased.Little is known as to how the motion of the basilar membrane is transformed to excitation of the cochlear sensory cells, i.e. the haircells. The excitation may be related to displacement, spatial differentiation or other transformations of the basilar membrane motion. Recording from the interior of mammalian haircells has so far been unsuccessful, and the neural excitatory process within the haircells in the cochlea is as yet practically unknown. Studies of the haircells in the lateral line organ of fish have provided fundamental knowledge about their excitation; since they in many respects resemble those in the mammalian cochlea, the results very probably can be applied to the excitatory process in the mammalian cochlea.


Author(s):  
Nuriye Yıldırım Gökay ◽  
Bülent Gündüz ◽  
Fatih Söke ◽  
Recep Karamert

Purpose The effects of neurological diseases on the auditory system have been a notable issue for investigators because the auditory pathway is closely associated with neural systems. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the efferent auditory system function and hearing quality in Parkinson's disease (PD) and to compare the findings with age-matched individuals without PD to present a perspective on aging. Method The study included 35 individuals with PD (mean age of 48.50 ± 8.00 years) and 35 normal-hearing peers (mean age of 49 ± 10 years). The following tests were administered for all participants: the first section of the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale; pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry, and acoustic reflexes; and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) and contralateral suppression of DPOAEs. SPSS Version 25 was used for statistical analyses, and values of p < .05 were considered statistically significant. Results There were no statistically significant differences in the pure-tone audiometry thresholds and DPOAE responses between the individuals with PD and their normal-hearing peers ( p = .732). However, statistically significant differences were found between the groups in suppression levels of DPOAEs and hearing quality ( p < .05). In addition, a statistically significant and positive correlation was found between the amount of suppression at some frequencies and the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale scores. Conclusions This study indicates that medial olivocochlear efferent system function and the hearing quality of individuals with PD were affected adversely due to the results of PD pathophysiology on the hearing system. For optimal intervention and follow-up, tasks related to hearing quality in daily life can also be added to therapies for PD.


1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Dorman ◽  
Ingrid Cedar ◽  
Maureen Hannley ◽  
Marjorie Leek ◽  
Julie Mapes Lindholm

Computer synthesized vowels of 50- and 300-ms duration were presented to normal-hearing listeners at a moderate and high sound pressure level (SPL). Presentation at the high SPL resulted in poor recognition accuracy for vowels of a duration (50 ms) shorter than the latency of the acoustic stapedial reflex. Presentation level had no effect on recognition accuracy for vowels of sufficient duration (300 ms) to elicit the reflex. The poor recognition accuracy for the brief, high intensity vowels was significantly improved when the reflex was preactivated. These results demonstrate the importance of the acoustic reflex in extending the dynamic range of the auditory system for speech recognition.


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