The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 78 No. 5 November 1997, pp. 2754-2771
Copyright ©1997 The American Physiological Society

Monaural Spectral Contrast Mechanism for Neural Sensitivity to Sound Direction in the Medial Geniculate Body of the Cat

Thomas J. Imig, Pierre Poirier, W. Andrew Irons, and Frank K. Samson

Department of Physiology, Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas 66160-7401

Imig, Thomas J., Pierre Poirier, W. Andrew Irons, and Frank K. Samson. Monaural spectral contrast mechanism for neural sensitivity to sound direction in the medial geniculate body of the cat. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 2754-2771, 1997. Central auditory neurons vary in sound direction sensitivity. Insensitive cells discharge well to all sound source directions, whereas sensitive cells discharge well to certain directions and poorly to others. High-frequency neurons in the latter group are differentially sensitive to binaural and monaural directional cues present in broadband noise (BBN). Binaural directional (BD) cells require binaural stimulation for directional sensitivity; monaural directional (MD) cells are sensitive to the direction of monaural stimuli. A model of MD sensitivity was tested using single-unit responses. The model assumes that MD cells derive directional sensitivity from pinna-derived spectral cues (head related transfer function, HRTF). This assumption was supported by the similarity of effects that pinna orientation produces on locations of HRTF patterns and on locations of MD cell azimuth function peaks and nulls. According to the model, MD neurons derive directional sensitivity by use of excitatory/inhibitory antagonism to compare sound pressure in excitatory and inhibitory frequency domains, and a variety of observations are consistent with this idea. 1) Frequency response areas of MD cells consist of excitatory and inhibitory domains. MD cells exhibited a higher proportion of multiple excitatory domains and narrower excitatory frequency domains than BD cells, features that may reflect specialization for spectral-dependent directional sensitivity. 2) MD sensitivity requires sound pressure in excitatory and inhibitory frequency domains. Directional sensitivity was evaluated using stimuli with frequency components confined exclusively to excitatory domains (E-only stimuli) or distributed in both excitatory and inhibitory domains (E/I stimuli). Each of 13 MD cells that were tested exhibited higher directional sensitivity to E/I than to E-only stimuli; most MD cells exhibited relatively low directional sensitivity when frequency components were confined exclusively to excitatory domains. 3) MD sensitivity derives from excitatory/inhibitory antagonism (spectral inhibition). Comparison of responses to best frequency and E/I stimuli provided strong support for spectral inhibition. Although spectral facilitation conceivably could contribute to directional sensitivity with direction-dependent increases in response, the results did not show this to be a significant factor. 4) Direction-dependent decreases in responsiveness to BBN reflect increased sound pressure in inhibitory relative to excitatory frequency domains. This idea was tested using the strength of two-tone inhibition, which is a function of stimulus levels in inhibitory relative to excitatory frequency domains. The finding that two-tone inhibition was stronger at directions where BBN responses were minimal than at directions where they were maximal supports the model.

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