Spike-frequency adaptation generates intensity invariance in a primary auditory interneuron

J Comput Neurosci. 2008 Apr;24(2):113-36. doi: 10.1007/s10827-007-0044-8. Epub 2007 May 30.

Abstract

Adaptation of the spike-frequency response to constant stimulation, as observed on various timescales in many neurons, reflects high-pass filter properties of a neuron's transfer function. Adaptation in general, however, is not sufficient to make a neuron's response independent of the mean intensity of a sensory stimulus, since low frequency components of the stimulus are still transmitted, although with reduced gain. We here show, based on an analytically tractable model, that the response of a neuron is intensity invariant, if the fully adapted steady-state spike-frequency response to constant stimuli is independent of stimulus intensity. Electrophysiological recordings from the AN1, a primary auditory interneuron of crickets, show that for intensities above 60 dB SPL (sound pressure level) the AN1 adapted with a time-constant of approximately 40 ms to a steady-state firing rate of approximately 100 Hz. Using identical random amplitude-modulation stimuli we verified that the AN1's spike-frequency response is indeed invariant to the stimulus' mean intensity above 60 dB SPL. The transfer function of the AN1 is a band pass, resulting from a high-pass filter (cutoff frequency at 4 Hz) due to adaptation and a low-pass filter (100 Hz) determined by the steady-state spike frequency. Thus, fast spike-frequency adaptation can generate intensity invariance already at the first level of neural processing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation* / methods
  • Action Potentials / physiology*
  • Adaptation, Physiological*
  • Animals
  • Auditory Cortex / cytology*
  • Auditory Pathways
  • Auditory Threshold / physiology
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation
  • Gryllidae
  • Interneurons / physiology*
  • Models, Neurological
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Time Factors