TY - JOUR
T1 - Reverse Correlation Analysis of Auditory-Nerve Fiber Responses to Broadband Noise in a Bird, the Barn Owl
AU - Fontaine, Bertrand
AU - Köppl, Christine
AU - Peña, Jose L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Association for Research in Otolaryngology.
PY - 2015/2
Y1 - 2015/2
N2 - While the barn owl has been extensively used as a model for sound localization and temporal coding, less is known about the mechanisms at its sensory organ, the basilar papilla (homologous to the mammalian cochlea). In this paper, we characterize, for the first time in the avian system, the auditory nerve fiber responses to broadband noise using reverse correlation. We use the derived impulse responses to study the processing of sounds in the cochlea of the barn owl. We characterize the frequency tuning, phase, instantaneous frequency, and relationship to input level of impulse responses. We show that, even features as complex as the phase dependence on input level, can still be consistent with simple linear filtering. Where possible, we compare our results with mammalian data. We identify salient differences between the barn owl and mammals, e.g., a much smaller frequency glide slope and a bimodal impulse response for the barn owl, and discuss what they might indicate about cochlear mechanics. While important for research on the avian auditory system, the results from this paper also allow us to examine hypotheses put forward for the mammalian cochlea.
AB - While the barn owl has been extensively used as a model for sound localization and temporal coding, less is known about the mechanisms at its sensory organ, the basilar papilla (homologous to the mammalian cochlea). In this paper, we characterize, for the first time in the avian system, the auditory nerve fiber responses to broadband noise using reverse correlation. We use the derived impulse responses to study the processing of sounds in the cochlea of the barn owl. We characterize the frequency tuning, phase, instantaneous frequency, and relationship to input level of impulse responses. We show that, even features as complex as the phase dependence on input level, can still be consistent with simple linear filtering. Where possible, we compare our results with mammalian data. We identify salient differences between the barn owl and mammals, e.g., a much smaller frequency glide slope and a bimodal impulse response for the barn owl, and discuss what they might indicate about cochlear mechanics. While important for research on the avian auditory system, the results from this paper also allow us to examine hypotheses put forward for the mammalian cochlea.
KW - cochlear mechanics
KW - reverse correlation
KW - spike-triggered average
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U2 - 10.1007/s10162-014-0494-4
DO - 10.1007/s10162-014-0494-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 25315358
AN - SCOPUS:84954198130
SN - 1525-3961
VL - 16
SP - 101
EP - 119
JO - JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
JF - JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
IS - 1
ER -