QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, March 18, 2009, 29(11):3431-3441; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3383-08.2009

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Weiss, S. A. Articles by Faber, D. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Weiss, S. A. Articles by Faber, D. S.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Phase Encoding in the Mauthner System: Implications in Left–Right Sound Source Discrimination

Shennan A. Weiss, Thomas Preuss, ^* and Donald S. Faber ^*

Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Donald S. Faber, Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461. Email: dfaber{at}aecom.yu.edu

The paired teleost Mauthner (M)-cells and their associated network serve as an excellent system to study the biophysical basis of decision making. In teleosts, an abrupt sound evokes an M-spike, triggering a C-start escape that is usually directed away from a sound source. The response latency is minimized by electrical synapses between auditory afferents and the M-cell lateral dendrite. Here, we demonstrate that the electrical synapses also mediate phase encoding. Ramped sound pressure waves (150–250 Hz) evoked electrotonic postsynaptic potentials in the M-cell locked to two diametrically opposed phase angles that were frequency dependent but intensity independent. Phase encoding was also evident at the behavioral level underwater, because the stimuli evoked directional C-starts with an onset that was phase locked to the sound wave. In interneurons inhibitory to the M-cell, these same stimuli also evoked phase-locked electrotonic postsynaptic potentials and action potentials. The resulting chemical and electrical (i.e., field effect) inhibitions functioned tonically and phasically, respectively. Phase encoding could be important in underwater sound source localization, which is thought to require a neural computation involving a phase comparison between the pressure and the directional particle motion components of sound. This computation may be implemented by an interplay between phase-dependent afferent excitation and feedforward inhibition that activates the appropriate M-cell and directs the C-start away from the sound source.

---

Received June 26, 2008; revised Jan. 12, 2009; accepted Feb. 4, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Donald S. Faber, Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461. Email: dfaber{at}aecom.yu.edu

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help