title: Gain control mechanisms in the auditory pathway.
abstract: Belying the apparent ease with which the acoustic world is perceived, the sheer vastness of the range of sounds and sound parameters that must be encoded represents a challenge to traditional models of neural coding in audition. Here, we review recent evidence suggesting that a process of gain control, operating at multiple stages in the auditory pathway, helps maintain coding accuracy to prevailing sound conditions over a wide range of behavioural and sensory contexts. Together, these processes imbue the system with its staggering representational capacity, underpinning everything from the perception of a tiger's near-silent tread to its triumphant roar, demonstrating once more the principle of efficient coding that underlies sensory processing.
authors: UCL Ear Institute, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8EE, UK.
authors: Benjamin Louis
authors: BL
authors: Robinson
authors: David
authors: D
authors: McAlpine
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D013016:Sound