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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 98/4/2182    most recent 00394.2007v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Atencio, C. A. Articles by Schreiner, C. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Atencio, C. A. Articles by Schreiner, C. E.

Frequency-Modulation Encoding in the Primary Auditory Cortex of the Awake Owl Monkey

¹Bioengineering Graduate Group, University of California, San Francisco, University of California, Berkeley; ²W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience; ³Coleman Memorial Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California; and ⁴Center for Synapses and Cognitive Neuroscience, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia

Submitted 5 April 2007; accepted in final form 11 August 2007

Many communication sounds, such as New World monkey twitter calls, contain frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps. To determine how this prominent vocalization element is represented in the auditory cortex we examined neural responses to logarithmic FM sweep stimuli in the primary auditory cortex (AI) of two awake owl monkeys. Using an implanted array of microelectrodes we quantitatively characterized neuronal responses to FM sweeps and to random tone-pip stimuli. Tone-pip responses were used to construct spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs). Classification of FM sweep responses revealed few neurons with high direction and speed selectivity. Most neurons responded to sweeps in both directions and over a broad range of sweep speeds. Characteristic frequency estimates from FM responses were highly correlated with estimates from STRFs, although spectral receptive field bandwidth was consistently underestimated by FM stimuli. Predictions of FM direction selectivity and best speed from STRFs were significantly correlated with observed FM responses, although some systematic discrepancies existed. Last, the population distributions of FM responses in the awake owl monkey were similar to, although of longer temporal duration than, those in the anesthetized squirrel monkeys.