The overall objective of the proposed research is to understand the neural representation of the acoustic environment in the brainstem auditory system, particularly the cochlear nucleus and the inferior colliculus. The dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) receives both auditory and somatosensory input. The nature of the sensory convergence is the first aim of the proposal. The touch inputs carry information about the status of the muscles that move the cat's pinna. This suggests that the role of the auditory/somatosensory convergence is to coordinate the auditory system's interpretation of pinna dependent cues for sound localization with information about where the pinna are pointing. As such, this system serves as model for the coordination of head movements with sound localization in humans observers.
In Aim 1, the properties of the convergence in DCN will be investigated, particularly whether the somatosensory inputs induce cross-frequency auditory processing in DCN, and whether plasticity can be observed in the auditory/somatosensory interaction.
Aims 2 and 3 will characterize the representation of complex acoustic environments in the cochlear nucleus and inferior colliculus.
In Aim 2, a new information-theoretic measure will be used to study the sensitivity of auditory neurons to particular aspects of the sound stream. With this method, the relative sensitivity of neurons to spectral and temporal features of the stimulus, to localization of sounds in space, and to special features of the stimulus that help in perceptual analysis of complex scenes can be analyzed. An important feature of the method is that representations that are encoded in the coordinated activity of ensembles of neurons can be analyzed using the same methods as single-unit representations.
In Aim 3, the nature of the neural representation in particular neurons will be studied using methods that attempt to construct predictive models of neural responses.
This aim i s based on the hypothesis that the auditory system contains parallel, generally nearly linear tonotopic systems that represent stimuli in a homomorphic fashion and non-linear systems engaged in special analyses of particular features which have a particular biological importance.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC000115-26
Application #
6379164
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IFCN-6 (01))
Program Officer
Luethke, Lynn E
Project Start
1978-07-01
Project End
2005-03-31
Budget Start
2001-04-01
Budget End
2002-03-31
Support Year
26
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$307,617
Indirect Cost
Name
Johns Hopkins University
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
045911138
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21218
Li, Yang; Ropp, Tessa-Jonne F; May, Bradford J et al. (2015) Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus of the Rat: Representation of Complex Sounds in Ears Damaged by Acoustic Trauma. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 16:487-505
Young, Eric D (2013) Which neurons survive the glutamate storm? J Neurophysiol 110:575-6
Bandyopadhyay, Sharba; Young, Eric D (2013) Nonlinear temporal receptive fields of neurons in the dorsal cochlear nucleus. J Neurophysiol 110:2414-25
Yu, Jane J; Young, Eric D (2013) Frequency response areas in the inferior colliculus: nonlinearity and binaural interaction. Front Neural Circuits 7:90
Slee, Sean J; Young, Eric D (2013) Linear processing of interaural level difference underlies spatial tuning in the nucleus of the brachium of the inferior colliculus. J Neurosci 33:3891-904
Slee, Sean J; Young, Eric D (2011) Information conveyed by inferior colliculus neurons about stimuli with aligned and misaligned sound localization cues. J Neurophysiol 106:974-85
Wong, Aaron L; Shelhamer, Mark (2011) Saccade adaptation improves in response to a gradually introduced stimulus perturbation. Neurosci Lett 500:207-11
Nelson, Paul C; Young, Eric D (2010) Neural correlates of context-dependent perceptual enhancement in the inferior colliculus. J Neurosci 30:6577-87
Slee, Sean J; Young, Eric D (2010) Sound localization cues in the marmoset monkey. Hear Res 260:96-108
Nelson, Paul C; Smith, Zachary M; Young, Eric D (2009) Wide-dynamic-range forward suppression in marmoset inferior colliculus neurons is generated centrally and accounts for perceptual masking. J Neurosci 29:2553-62

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