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The Journal of Neuroscience, February 15, 2000, 20(4):1605-1615
Neural Sensitivity to Interaural Time Differences: Beyond the
Jeffress Model
Douglas C.
Fitzpatrick,
Shigeyuki
Kuwada, and
Ranjan
Batra
Department of Anatomy, University of Connecticut Health Center,
Farmington, Connecticut 06030-3405
Interaural time differences (ITDs) are a major cue for localizing
the azimuthal position of sounds. The dominant models for processing
ITDs are based on the Jeffress model and predict neurons that fire
maximally at a common ITD across their responsive frequency range. Such
neurons are indeed found in the binaural pathways and are referred to
as "peak-type." However, other neurons discharge minimally at a
common ITD (trough-type), and others do not display a common ITD at the
maxima or minima (intermediate-type). From recordings of neurons in the
auditory cortex of the unanesthetized rabbit to low-frequency tones and
envelopes of high-frequency sounds, we show that the different response
types combine to form a continuous axis of best ITD. This axis extends
to ITDs well beyond that allowed by the head width. In Jeffress-type
models, sensitivity to large ITDs would require neural delay lines with large differences in path lengths between the two ears. Our results suggest instead that sensitivity to large ITDs is created with short
delay lines, using neurons that display intermediate- and trough-type
responses. We demonstrate that a neuron's best ITD can be predicted
from (1) its characteristic delay, a rough measure of the delay line,
(2) its characteristic phase, which defines the response type, and (3)
its best frequency for ITD sensitivity. The intermediate- and
trough-type neurons that have large best ITDs are predicted to be most
active when sounds at the two ears are decorrelated and may transmit
information about auditory space other than sound localization.
Key words:
auditory neurophysiology; auditory pathways; interaural
temporal disparities; sound localization; low-frequency hearing; low-frequency signals
Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/00/2041605-11$05.00/0
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