A unifying basis of auditory thresholds based on temporal summation.

ABSTRACT: Thresholds of auditory-nerve (AN) fibers and auditory neurons are commonly specified in terms of sound pressure only, implying that they are independent of time. At the perceptual level, however, the sound pressure required for detection decreases with increasing stimulus duration, suggesting that the auditory system integrates sound over time. The quantity commonly believed to be integrated is sound intensity, implying that the auditory system would have an energy threshold. However, leaky integrators of intensity with time constants of hundreds of milliseconds are required to fit the data. Such time constants are unknown in physiology and are also incompatible with the high temporal resolution of the auditory system, creating the resolution-integration paradox. Here we demonstrate that c

SUBMITTER: Heil P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC156341 | biostudies-literature | 2003 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature