title: Latency represents sound frequency in mouse IC.
abstract: Frequency is one of the fundamental parameters of sound. The frequency of an acoustic stimulus can be represented by a neural response such as spike rate, and/or first spike latency (FSL) of a given neuron. The spike rates/frequency function of most neurons changes with different acoustic amplitudes, whereas FSL/frequency function is highly stable. This implies that FSL might represent the frequency of a sound stimulus more efficiently than spike rate. This study involved representations of acoustic frequency by spike rate and FSL of central inferior colliculus (IC) neurons responding to free-field pure-tone stimuli. We found that the FSLs of neurons responding to characteristic frequency (CF) of sound stimulus were usually the shortest, regardless of sound intensity, and that spike rates of most neurons showed a variety of function according to sound frequency, especially at high intensities. These results strongly suggest that FSL of auditory IC neurons can represent sound frequency more precisely than spike rate.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Qiu
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Tang
authors: ZuLin
authors: Z
authors: Yu
authors: Juan
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: YingJie
authors: Y
authors: Zhou
authors: ZhongJu
authors: Z
authors: Xiao
authors: JunXian
authors: J
authors: Shen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D007245:Inferior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time