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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 29, 2007, 27(35):9469-9481; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2865-07.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Rethinking Tuning: In Vivo Whole-Cell Recordings of the Inferior Colliculus in Awake Bats

Ruili Xie, Joshua X. Gittelman, and George D. Pollak

Section of Neurobiology, Institute for Neuroscience, and Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712

Correspondence should be addressed to George D. Pollak, Section of Neurobiology, Institute for Neuroscience, and Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712. Email: gpollak{at}mail.utexas.edu

Tuning curves were recorded with patch electrodes from the inferior colliculus (IC) of awake bats to evaluate the tuning of the inputs to IC neurons, reflected in their synaptic tuning, compared with the tuning of their outputs, expressed in their discharge tuning. A number of unexpected features were revealed with whole-cell recordings. Among these was that most neurons responded to tones with inhibition and/or subthreshold excitation over a surprisingly broad frequency range. The synaptic tuning in many cells was at least 1.5–2.0 octaves wide and, on average, was more than twice as wide as the frequency range that evoked discharges even after inhibition was blocked. In most cells, tones evoked complex synaptic response configurations that varied with frequency, suggesting that these cells were not innervated by congruent excitatory and inhibitory projections. Synaptic tuning was not only wide but was also diverse, in which some cells were dominated by excitation (n = 20), others were dominated by excitation with sideband inhibition (n = 21), but most were dominated by inhibition with little evidence of excitation (n = 31). Another unexpected finding was that some cells responded with inhibition to the onset and offset of tones over a wide frequency range, in which the patterns of synaptic responses changed markedly with frequency. These cells never fired to tones at 50 dB sound pressure level but fired to frequency-modulated sweeps at that intensity and were directionally selective. Thus, the features revealed by whole-cell recordings show that the processing in many IC cells results from inputs spectrally broader and more complex than previously believed.

Key words: in vivo whole-cell recordings; inferior colliculus; synaptic tuning; inhibition; tuning curves; FM directional selectivity

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Received April 3, 2007; accepted July 7, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to George D. Pollak, Section of Neurobiology, Institute for Neuroscience, and Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712. Email: gpollak{at}mail.utexas.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. X. Gittelman, N. Li, and G. D. Pollak Mechanisms Underlying Directional Selectivity for Frequency-Modulated Sweeps in the Inferior Colliculus Revealed by In Vivo Whole-Cell Recordings J. Neurosci., October 14, 2009; 29(41): 13030 - 13041. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. Gans, K. Sheykholeslami, D. C. Peterson, and J. Wenstrup Temporal Features of Spectral Integration in the Inferior Colliculus: Effects of Stimulus Duration and Rise Time J Neurophysiol, July 1, 2009; 102(1): 167 - 180. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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