[Physiological mechanisms of auditory adaptation. I. Peristimulus adaptation].
The temporal dynamic of firing of single neurons, located in different nuclei of the auditory pathway in the course of sound signals presentation is analyzed. The main features of short-term (<1 s) and long-term (>5 s) adaptation of firing activity in ascending way of an auditory analyzer are compared. In many units during peristimulus adaptation a threshold of spike generation is adjusted to an average level of an input signal. It leads to an essential increase of differential sensitivity to any changes in forthcoming signal both for single cells and auditory system as a whole. This observation also reveaed itself in the psychophysical observations. Some possible mechanisms providing improvement of detection of small changes of a signal in the course of adaptation are considered. The main features of adaptation in acoustical system and in other sensory analyzers are compared.
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D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology*