Neural processing of auditory signals in the time domain: Delay-tuned coincidence detectors in the mustached bat

The central auditory system produces combination-sensitive neurons tuned to a specific combination of multiple signal elements. Some of these neurons act as coincidence detectors with delay lines for the extraction of spectro-temporal information from sounds. "Delay-tuned" neurons of mustached bats are tuned to a combination of up to four signal elements with a specific delay between them and form a delay map. They are produced in the inferior colliculus by the coincidence of the rebound response following glycinergic inhibition to the first harmonic of a biosonar pulse with the short-latency response to the 2nd-4th harmonics of its echo. Compared with collicular delay-tuned neurons, thalamic and cortical ones respond more to pulse-echo pairs than individual sounds. Cortical delay-tuned neurons are clustered in the three separate areas. They interact with each other through a circuit mediating positive feedback and lateral inhibition for adjustment and improvement of the delay tuning of cortical and subcortical neurons. The current article reviews the mechanisms for delay tuning and the response properties of collicular, thalamic and cortical delay-tuned neurons in relation to hierarchical signal processing.