Physiological Correlates of Comodulation Masking Release in the Mammalian Ventral Cochlear Nucleus

Comodulation masking release (CMR) enhances the detection of signals embedded in wideband, amplitude-modulated maskers. At least part of the CMR is attributable to across-frequency processing, however, the relative contribution of different stages in the auditory system to across-frequency processing is unknown. We have measured the responses of single units from one of the earliest stages in the ascending auditory pathway, the ventral cochlear nucleus, where across frequency processing may take place. A sinusoidally amplitude-modulated tone at the best frequency of each unit was used as a masker. A pure tone signal was added in the dips of the masker modulation (reference condition). Flanking components (FCs) were then added at frequencies remote from the unit best frequency. The FCs were pure tones amplitude modulated either in phase (comodulated) or out of phase (codeviant) with the on-frequency component. Psychophysically, this CMR paradigm reduces within-channel cues while producing an advantage of ∼10 dB for the comodulated condition in comparison with the reference condition. Some of the recorded units showed responses consistent with perceptual CMR. The addition of the comodulated FCs produced a strong reduction in the response to the masker modulation, making the signal more salient in the poststimulus time histograms. A decision statistic based on d′ showed that threshold was reached at lower signal levels for the comodulated condition than for reference or codeviant conditions. The neurons that exhibited such a behavior were mainly transient chopper or primary-like units. The results obtained from a subpopulation of transient chopper units are consistent with a possible circuit in the cochlear nucleus consisting of a wideband inhibitor contacting a narrowband cell. A computational model was used to confirm the feasibility of such a circuit.