Neural tuning matches frequency-dependent time differences between the ears

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Abstract

The time it takes a sound to travel from source to ear differs between the ears and creates an interaural delay. It varies systematically with spatial direction and is generally modeled as a pure time delay, independent of frequency. In acoustical recordings, we found that interaural delay varies with frequency at a fine scale. In physiological recordings of midbrain neurons sensitive to interaural delay, we found that preferred delay also varies with sound frequency. Similar observations reported earlier were not incorporated in a functional framework. We find that the frequency dependence of acoustical and physiological interaural delays are matched in key respects. This suggests that binaural neurons are tuned to acoustical features of ecological environments, rather than to fixed interaural delays. Using recordings from the nerve and brainstem we show that this tuning may emerge from neurons detecting coincidences between input fibers that are mistuned in frequency.

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Victor Benichoux

Institut d'Etudes de la Cognition, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Bertrand Fontaine

Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Tom P Franken

Laboratory of Auditory Neurophysiology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Shotaro Karino

Laboratory of Auditory Neurophysiology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Philip X Joris

Laboratory of Auditory Neurophysiology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Romain Brette

Institut d'Etudes de la Cognition, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

For correspondence
romain.brette@inserm.fr

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were approved by the institutional Animal Care Committee and were in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (P155/2008 to PX Joris (2009-2013))

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.