Rapid adaptation depends on the characteristic frequency of auditory nerve fibers.
When a tone burst is presented to the ear, the firing rate of single auditory nerve fibers is initially high, then rapidly declines toward a smaller value. The rate of this decline in gerbil is a complex function of stimulus frequency and intensity, and fiber characteristic frequency.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005849:Gerbillinae / Q000502:physiology*; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D000159:Vestibulocochlear Nerve / Q000502:physiology*