Auditory spatial tuning at the crossroads of the midbrain and forebrain.

ABSTRACT: The barn owl's midbrain and forebrain contain neurons tuned to sound direction. The spatial receptive fields of these neurons result from sensitivity to combinations of interaural time (ITD) and level (ILD) differences over a broad frequency range. While a map of auditory space has been described in the midbrain, no similar topographic representation has been found in the forebrain. The first nuclei that belong exclusively to the forebrain and midbrain pathways are the thalamic nucleus ovoidalis (Ov) and the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICx), respectively. The midbrain projects to the auditory thalamus before sharp spatial receptive fields emerge; although Ov and ICx receive projections from the same midbrain nuclei, they are not directly connected. We compared the spatial

SUBMITTER: Perez ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2746782 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature