Abstract

The long-term objective of this project is a thorough understanding of the behavioral and neural mechanisms of sound localization. The present application will continue our long-standing electrophysiological and anatomical studies of the brainstem circuits thought to underlie sound localization and incorporates our new behavioral techniques to combine physiological recording and behavioral analysis in awake cats. We have three general aims.
Aim I continues our studies seeking physiological correlates of the well-known psychophysical phenomenon known as the precedence effect, but now we will record from the interior colliculus of behaving cats. These experiments will explore the effect of behavioral states on the responses to stimuli that are known to evoke the precedence effect in human subjects as well as to resolve differences reported in awake and anesthetized animals.
Aim II will study an important source of inhibitory input to the inferior colliculus, the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (DNLL). We will study the physiological response properties of the DNLL, focussing on their binaural response and sensitivity to interaural time differences, use intracellular recording and staining of single cells to study structure/function relations, and inactivate the DNLL while recording from cells in the contralateral inferior colliculus to study the function of this bilateral inhibitory input.
Aim III will use the virtual acoustic space technique to study responses of cells in the lateral superior olive (LSO) with particular attention to exploring the sensitivity of cells to spectral cues. These studies will provide important information on the neural mechanisms underlying sound localization. Spatial hearing is an important basic function of the auditory system: defects in binaural function in human patients can lead to difficulty in understanding conversations in a noisy room, which is perhaps the most common complaint of the hearing-impaired and can lead to severe social withdrawal.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Program Projects (P01)
Project #
5P01DC000116-27
Application #
6564023
Study Section
Project Start
2002-03-01
Project End
2003-02-28
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
27
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$230,631
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Type
DUNS #
161202122
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715

  Publications

Ruhland, Janet L; Yin, Tom C T; Tollin, Daniel J (2013) Gaze shifts to auditory and visual stimuli in cats. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 14:731-55
Karino, Shotaro; Smith, Philip H; Yin, Tom C T et al. (2011) Axonal branching patterns as sources of delay in the mammalian auditory brainstem: a re-examination. J Neurosci 31:3016-31
Rhode, William S; Roth, G Linn; Recio-Spinoso, Alberto (2010) Response properties of cochlear nucleus neurons in monkeys. Hear Res 259:1-15
Rhode, W S (2008) Response patterns to sound associated with labeled globular/bushy cells in cat. Neuroscience 154:87-98
Moore, Jordan M; Tollin, Daniel J; Yin, Tom C T (2008) Can measures of sound localization acuity be related to the precision of absolute location estimates? Hear Res 238:94-109
Reale, R A; Calvert, G A; Thesen, T et al. (2007) Auditory-visual processing represented in the human superior temporal gyrus. Neuroscience 145:162-84
Tollin, Daniel J; Yin, Tom C T (2005) Interaural phase and level difference sensitivity in low-frequency neurons in the lateral superior olive. J Neurosci 25:10648-57
Zahorik, Pavel (2002) Direct-to-reverberant energy ratio sensitivity. J Acoust Soc Am 112:2110-7
Zahorik, Pavel (2002) Assessing auditory distance perception using virtual acoustics. J Acoust Soc Am 111:1832-46
Langendijk, E H; Kistler, D J; Wightman, F L (2001) Sound localization in the presence of one or two distracters. J Acoust Soc Am 109:2123-34

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