Sustained firing of model central auditory neurons yields a discriminative spectro-temporal representation for natural sounds.

ABSTRACT: The processing characteristics of neurons in the central auditory system are directly shaped by and reflect the statistics of natural acoustic environments, but the principles that govern the relationship between natural sound ensembles and observed responses in neurophysiological studies remain unclear. In particular, accumulating evidence suggests the presence of a code based on sustained neural firing rates, where central auditory neurons exhibit strong, persistent responses to their preferred stimuli. Such a strategy can indicate the presence of ongoing sounds, is involved in parsing complex auditory scenes, and may play a role in matching neural dynamics to varying time scales in acoustic signals. In this paper, we describe a computational framework for exploring the influence of a co

SUBMITTER: Carlin MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3610626 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature