Auditory midbrain responses parallel spectral integration phenomena.
Resolving the frequency components of complex sound spectra including speech is an inherent, important accomplishment of the auditory nervous systems of vertebrates. The critical perceptual unit in the frequency domain, the critical bandwidth, has a simple functional equivalent within the principal midbrain auditory nucleus--the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D002415:Cats; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound; D000159:Vestibulocochlear Nerve / Q000502:physiology