Corticofugal amplification of facilitative auditory responses of subcortical combination-sensitive neurons in the mustached bat. 1999

J Yan, and N Suga
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.

Recent studies on the bat's auditory system indicate that the corticofugal system mediates a highly focused positive feedback to physiologically "matched" subcortical neurons, and widespread lateral inhibition to physiologically "unmatched" subcortical neurons, to adjust and improve information processing. These findings have solved the controversy in physiological data, accumulated since 1962, of corticofugal effects on subcortical auditory neurons: inhibitory, excitatory, or both (an inhibitory effect is much more frequent than an excitatory effect). In the mustached bat, Pteronotus parnellii parnellii, the inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body, and auditory cortex each have "FM-FM" neurons, which are "combination-sensitive" and are tuned to specific time delays (echo delays) of echo FM components from the FM components of an emitted biosonar pulse. FM-FM neurons are more complex in response properties than cortical neurons which primarily respond to single tones. In the present study, we found that inactivation of the entire FM-FM area in the cortex, including neurons both physiologically matched and unmatched with subcortical FM-FM neurons, on the average reduced the facilitative responses to paired FM sounds by 82% for thalamic FM-FM neurons and by 66% for collicular FM-FM neurons. The corticofugal influence on the facilitative responses of subcortical combination-sensitive neurons is much larger than that on the excitatory responses of subcortical neurons primarily responding to single tones. Therefore we propose the hypothesis that, in general, the processing of complex sounds by combination-sensitive neurons more heavily depends on the corticofugal system than that by single-tone sensitive neurons.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007245 Inferior Colliculi The posterior pair of the quadrigeminal bodies which contain centers for auditory function. Colliculus, Inferior,Brachial Nucleus of the Inferior Colliculus,Caudal Colliculus,Colliculus Inferior,Inferior Colliculus,Posterior Colliculus,Colliculi, Inferior,Colliculus Inferiors,Colliculus, Caudal,Colliculus, Posterior,Inferior, Colliculus,Inferiors, Colliculus
D009118 Muscimol A neurotoxic isoxazole isolated from species of AMANITA. It is obtained by decarboxylation of IBOTENIC ACID. Muscimol is a potent agonist of GABA-A RECEPTORS and is used mainly as an experimental tool in animal and tissue studies. Agarin,Pantherine
D009474 Neurons The basic cellular units of nervous tissue. Each neuron consists of a body, an axon, and dendrites. Their purpose is to receive, conduct, and transmit impulses in the NERVOUS SYSTEM. Nerve Cells,Cell, Nerve,Cells, Nerve,Nerve Cell,Neuron
D011930 Reaction Time The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed. Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D002685 Chiroptera Order of mammals whose members are adapted for flight. It includes bats, flying foxes, and fruit bats. Bats,Flying Foxes,Horseshoe Bats,Pteropodidae,Pteropus,Rhinolophus,Rousettus,Bat, Horseshoe,Bats, Horseshoe,Foxes, Flying,Horseshoe Bat
D005246 Feedback A mechanism of communication within a system in that the input signal generates an output response which returns to influence the continued activity or productivity of that system. Feedbacks
D000161 Acoustic Stimulation Use of sound to elicit a response in the nervous system. Auditory Stimulation,Stimulation, Acoustic,Stimulation, Auditory
D000200 Action Potentials Abrupt changes in the membrane potential that sweep along the CELL MEMBRANE of excitable cells in response to excitation stimuli. Spike Potentials,Nerve Impulses,Action Potential,Impulse, Nerve,Impulses, Nerve,Nerve Impulse,Potential, Action,Potential, Spike,Potentials, Action,Potentials, Spike,Spike Potential
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D001303 Auditory Cortex The region of the cerebral cortex that receives the auditory radiation from the MEDIAL GENICULATE BODY. Brodmann Area 41,Brodmann Area 42,Brodmann's Area 41,Heschl Gyrus,Heschl's Gyrus,Auditory Area,Heschl's Convolutions,Heschl's Gyri,Primary Auditory Cortex,Temporal Auditory Area,Transverse Temporal Gyri,Area 41, Brodmann,Area 41, Brodmann's,Area 42, Brodmann,Area, Auditory,Area, Temporal Auditory,Auditory Areas,Auditory Cortex, Primary,Brodmanns Area 41,Cortex, Auditory,Cortex, Primary Auditory,Gyrus, Heschl,Gyrus, Heschl's,Gyrus, Transverse Temporal,Heschl Convolutions,Heschl Gyri,Heschls Convolutions,Heschls Gyri,Heschls Gyrus,Primary Auditory Cortices,Temporal Auditory Areas,Temporal Gyrus, Transverse,Transverse Temporal Gyrus

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