title: Noise-gated encoding of slow inputs by auditory brain stem neurons with a low-threshold K+ current.
abstract: Phasic neurons, which do not fire repetitively to steady depolarization, are found at various stages of the auditory system. Phasic neurons are commonly described as band-pass filters because they do not respond to low-frequency inputs even when the amplitude is large. However, we show that phasic neurons can encode low-frequency inputs when noise is present. With a low-threshold potassium current (I(KLT)), a phasic neuron model responds to rising and falling phases of a subthreshold low-frequency signal with white noise. When the white noise was low-pass filtered, the phasic model also responded to the signal's trough but still not to the peak. In contrast, a tonic neuron model fired mostly to the signal's peak. To test the model predictions, whole cell slice recordings were obtained in the medial (MSO) and lateral (LSO) superior olivary neurons in gerbil from postnatal day 10 (P10) to 22. The phasic MSO neurons with strong I(KLT), mostly from gerbils aged P17 or older, showed firing patterns consistent with the preceding predictions. Moreover, injecting a virtual I(KLT) into weak-phasic MSO and tonic LSO neurons with putative weak or no I(KLT) (from gerbils younger than P17) shifted the neural response from the signal's peak to the rising phase. These findings advance our knowledge about how noise gates the signal pathway and how phasic neurons encode slow envelopes of sounds with high-frequency carriers.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA. yg30@nyu.edu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gai
authors.forename: Brent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Doiron
authors.forename: Vibhakar
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kotak
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rinzel
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001306:Auditory Pathways; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004546:Elapid Venoms / Q000494:pharmacology; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D005849:Gerbillinae; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009622:Noise; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D009847:Olivary Nucleus / Q000166:cytology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000379:methods; D010507:Periodicity; D026902:Potassium Channel Blockers / Q000494:pharmacology; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004546:Elapid Venoms; D026902:Potassium Channel Blockers; D015221:Potassium Channels; C020273:dendrotoxin