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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 10, 3227-3246, Copyright © 1990 by Society for Neuroscience
A circuit for detection of interaural time differences in the brain stem of the barn owl
CE Carr and M Konishi
Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125.
Detection of interaural time differences underlies azimuthal sound
localization in the barn owl Tyto alba. Axons of the cochlear nucleus
magnocellularis, and their targets in the binaural nucleus laminaris, form
the circuit responsible for encoding these interaural time differences. The
nucleus laminaris receives bilateral inputs from the cochlear nucleus
magnocellularis such that axons from the ipsilateral cochlear nucleus enter
the nucleus laminaris dorsally, while contralateral axons enter from the
ventral side. This interdigitating projection to the nucleus laminaris is
tonotopic, and the afferents are both sharply tuned and matched in
frequency to the neighboring afferents. Recordings of phase-locked spikes
in the afferents show an orderly change in the arrival time of the spikes
as a function of distance from the point of their entry into the nucleus
laminaris. The same range of conduction time (160 mu sec) was found over
the 700-mu m depth of the nucleus laminaris for all frequencies examined
(4-7.5 kHz) and corresponds to the range of interaural time differences
available to the barn owl. The estimated conduction velocity in the axons
is low (3-5 m/sec) and may be regulated by short internodal distances (60
mu m) within the nucleus laminaris. Neurons of the nucleus laminaris have
large somata and very short dendrites. These cells are frequency selective
and phase-lock to both monaural and binaural stimuli. The arrival time of
phase-locked spikes in many of these neurons differs between the
ipsilateral and contralateral inputs. When this disparity is nullified by
imposition of an appropriate interaural time difference, the neurons
respond maximally. The number of spikes elicited in response to a favorable
interaural time difference is roughly double that elicited by a monaural
stimulus. Spike counts for unfavorable interaural time differences fall
well below monaural response levels. These findings indicate that the
magnocellular afferents work as delay lines, and the laminaris neurons work
as co- incidence detectors. The orderly distribution of conduction times,
the predictability of favorable interaural time differences from monaural
phase responses, and the pattern of the anatomical projection from the
nucleus laminaris to the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus suggest
that interaural time differences and their phase equivalents are mapped in
each frequency band along the dorsoventral axis of the nucleus laminaris.
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