Elsevier

Hearing Research

Volume 41, Issue 1, August 1989, Pages 61-69
Hearing Research

A computational model for rate-level functions from cat auditory-nerve fibers

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5955(89)90179-2Get rights and content

Abstract

A computationally tractable form of the rate-level model proposed by Sachs and Abbas (1974) is presented. The first stage of the model is a compressive nonlinearity whose input-output function is chosen to reflect current data on basilar-membrane displacement. The output of this nonlinearity is converted to driven discharge rate by the saturating nonlinearity originally used by Sachs and Abbas (1974). In fitting the model to data four model parameters are chosen to minimize the mean squared error between rate functions generated by the model and the data. With parameters chosen in this way, the model provides good fits to the range of rate-level shapes from flat saturations to sloping saturations. One important parameter in the model is the ‘threshold for compression’. For low- and medium-spontaneous rate fibers with similar best frequencies (BFs), the minimum mean squared error compression threshold is roughly constant at about 30 dB above the thresholds of the most sensitive (high-spontaneous rate) fibers at that BF.

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    For example, functions have been described as ‘flat saturating’, ‘sloping saturating’, and ‘straight’ (e.g., Sachs and Abbas, 1974; Winter et al., 1990). For ANFs having similar characteristic frequencies (CFs), the rate-level function for a stimulus frequency at CF appears to gradually change on a continuum from flat saturating to sloping saturating (and, in guinea pig, further to straight) as ANF threshold increases (Sachs and Abbas, 1974; Sachs et al., 1989; Winter et al., 1990; but see Palmer and Evans, 1980). Due to the tight negative correlation of threshold and spontaneous rate (e.g., Schmiedt, 1989; Ohlemiller and Echteler, 1990; Winter et al., 1990; Ohlemiller et al., 1991; Yates, 1991; Tsuji and Liberman, 1997; Taberner and Liberman, 2005), the shape of the rate-level function also varies with spontaneous rate (Winter et al., 1990; Sumner and Palmer, 2012).

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    The present data provide actual experimental, quantitative evidence for the relevance of that assumption, as will be shown below. Rate-level curves have been modeled such that the effective rate (average rate minus spontaneous rate) more or less mimics the magnitude of basilar membrane displacement (Geisler, 1990; Sachs et al., 1989; Yates et al., 1990). In these applications, SR is handled as a separate quantity that represents an intrinsic property of individual ANFs.

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