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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 6, 2008, 28(32):8107-8115; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1969-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Cross-Correlation in the Auditory Coincidence Detectors of Owls

Brian J. Fischer,1 * G. Björn Christianson,2 * and José Luis Peña3

1Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, 2UCL Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom, and 3Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. José Luis Peña, Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Room 529, 1410 Pelham Parkway South, Bronx, NY 10461. Email: jpena{at}aecom.yu.edu

Interaural time difference (ITD) plays a central role in many auditory functions, most importantly in sound localization. The classic model for how ITD is computed was put forth by Jeffress (1948). One of the predictions of the Jeffress model is that the neurons that compute ITD should behave as cross-correlators. Whereas cross-correlation-like properties of the ITD-computing neurons have been reported, attempts to show that the shape of the ITD response function is determined by the spectral tuning of the neuron, a core prediction of cross-correlation, have been unsuccessful. Using reverse correlation analysis, we demonstrate in the barn owl that the relationship between the spectral tuning and the ITD response of the ITD-computing neurons is that predicted by cross-correlation. Moreover, we show that a model of coincidence detector responses derived from responses to binaurally uncorrelated noise is consistent with binaural interaction based on cross-correlation. These results are thus consistent with one of the key tenets of the Jeffress model. Our work sets forth both the methodology to answer whether cross-correlation describes coincidence detector responses and a demonstration that in the barn owl, the result is that expected by theory.

Key words: barn owl; interaural time difference; cross-correlation; coincidence detection; sound localization; nucleus laminaris

Received Jan. 23, 2008; accepted June 20, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. José Luis Peña, Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Room 529, 1410 Pelham Parkway South, Bronx, NY 10461. Email: jpena{at}aecom.yu.edu






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