Auditory filters, features, and redundant representations.
Responses in auditory cortex tend to be weaker, more phasic, and noisier than those of auditory brainstem and midbrain nuclei. Is the activity in cortex therefore merely a "degraded echo" of lower-level neural representations? In this issue of Neuron, Chechik and colleagues show that, while cortical responses indeed convey less sensory information than auditory midbrain neurons, their responses are also much less redundant.
Schnupp
Jan
J
Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, Sherrington Building, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans