Neural adaptation to tone sequences in the songbird forebrain: patterns, determinants, and relation to the build-up of auditory streaming.

ABSTRACT: Neural responses to tones in the mammalian primary auditory cortex (A1) exhibit adaptation over the course of several seconds. Important questions remain about the taxonomic distribution of multi-second adaptation and its possible roles in hearing. It has been hypothesized that neural adaptation could explain the gradual "build-up" of auditory stream segregation. We investigated the influence of several stimulus-related factors on neural adaptation in the avian homologue of mammalian A1 (field L2) in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). We presented awake birds with sequences of repeated triplets of two interleaved tones (ABA-ABA-...) in which we varied the frequency separation between the A and B tones (DeltaF), the stimulus onset asynchrony (time from tone onset to onset within a triplet), and

SUBMITTER: Bee MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2909344 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature