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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 12, 2008, 28(46):11906-11915; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3827-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Adaptation of Firing Rate and Spike-Timing Precision in the Avian Cochlear Nucleus

Marina S. Kuznetsova,1,2 Matthew H. Higgs,1 and William J. Spain1,3,4

1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, 2Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, and 3Department of Neurology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105, and 4Neurology Section, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington 98108

Correspondence should be addressed to William J. Spain, Neurology (127), 1660 South Columbian Way, Seattle, WA 98108. Email: spain{at}u.washington.edu

Adaptation is commonly defined as a decrease in response to a constant stimulus. In the auditory system such adaptation is seen at multiple levels. However, the first-order central neurons of the interaural time difference detection circuit encode information in the timing of spikes rather than the overall firing rate. We investigated adaptation during in vitro whole-cell recordings from chick nucleus magnocellularis neurons. Injection of noisy, depolarizing current caused an increase in firing rate and a decrease in spike time precision that developed over ~20 s. This adaptation depends on sustained depolarization, is independent of firing, and is eliminated by {alpha}-dendrotoxin (0.1 µM), implicating slow inactivation of low-threshold voltage-activated K+ channels as its mechanism. This process may alter both firing rate and spike-timing precision of phase-locked inputs to coincidence detector neurons in nucleus laminaris and thereby adjust the precision of sound localization.

Key words: sound localization; nucleus magnocellularis; potassium channel; phase-locking; spike-timing precision; coincidence detection

Received Aug. 12, 2008; accepted Oct. 1, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to William J. Spain, Neurology (127), 1660 South Columbian Way, Seattle, WA 98108. Email: spain{at}u.washington.edu






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