Lateral inhibition in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of the cat: A microiontophoretic study

The spontaneous firing rates of non-prepotential (NPP) units of the anteroventral cochlear nucleus are quite low so it has not been possible to determine whether side band tones are inhibitory when presented alone. Microiontophoretically-applied excitatory amino acids can be used to excite non-spontaneous cells directly. Using this technique it can be shown that side band tone bursts 1/2 to 3/4 octave above the characteristic frequency (CF) of a NPP unit inhibit the amino acid-induced firing. Side band tones which inhibited the amino acid-induced firing were beyond the tuning curve. Side band tones within the tuning curve produced excitation. Both, however, usually reduced the activity evoked by a CF tone burst (i.e., two-tone interaction). The data suggests that lateral inhibition and two-tone interactions are separate phenomena in the auditory system and that lateral inhibition may play a critical role in determining the shape of the tuning curve of NPP units.

[1]  D. R. Curtis,et al.  Strychnine and Cortical Inhibition , 1967, Nature.

[2]  D. Rl.  Some unresolved problems concerning the cochlear nerve. , 1976 .

[3]  D. A. Godfrey,et al.  Quantitative histochemical mapping of candidate transmitter amino acids in cat cochlear nucleus. , 1977, The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society.

[4]  N Suga,et al.  Properties of ‘two‐tone inhibition’ in primary auditory neurones , 1971, The Journal of physiology.

[5]  Terrance Raymond Bourk,et al.  Electrical responses of neural units in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of the cat , 1976 .

[6]  J. E. Rose,et al.  Observations on phase-sensitive neurons of anteroventral cochlear nucleus of the cat: nonlinearity of cochlear output. , 1974, Journal of neurophysiology.

[7]  N. Suga,et al.  DISCHARGE PATTERN AND INHIBITION OF PRIMARY AUDITORY NERVE FIBERS IN THE MONKEY. , 1964, Journal of neurophysiology.

[8]  R. L. Nó,et al.  Anatomy of the eighth nerve: III.—General plan of structure of the primary cochlear nuclei , 1933 .

[9]  Alexander Joseph.  Book reviewDischarge patterns of single fibers in the cat's auditory nerve: Nelson Yuan-Sheng Kiang, with the assistance of Takeshi Watanabe, Eleanor C. Thomas and Louise F. Clark: Research Monograph no. 35. Cambridge, Mass., The M.I.T. Press, 1965 , 1967 .

[10]  J E Hind,et al.  Coding of information pertaining to paired low-frequency tones in single auditory nerve fibers of the squirrel monkey. , 1967, Journal of neurophysiology.

[11]  D. R. Curtis,et al.  Strychnine-Resistant Central Inhibition: Strychnine and Cortical Inhibition , 1963, Nature.

[12]  D. K. Morest,et al.  Relations between auditory nerve endings and cell types in the cat's anteroventral cochlear nucleus seen with the Golgi method and nomarski optics , 1975, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[13]  L. Sokoloff,et al.  α- And β-adrenoreceptor blockers have opposite effects on energy metabolism of the central auditory system , 1978, Nature.

[14]  J. Goldberg,et al.  Discharge characteristics of neurons in anteroventral and dorsal cochlear nuclei of cat. , 1973, Brain research.

[15]  R. R. Pfeiffer.  Anteroventral Cochlear Nucleus:Wave Forms of Extracellularly Recorded Spike Potentials , 1966, Science.

[16]  R. Wenthold.  Release of endogenous glutamic acid, aspartic acid and GABA from cochlear nucleus slices , 1979, Brain Research.

[17]  D. A. Godfrey,et al.  Distribution of gamma-aminobutyric acid, glycine, glutamate and aspartate in the cochlear nucleus of the rat. , 1978, The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society.

[18]  G. Manley.  Cochlear frequency sharpening-a new synthesis. , 1978, Acta oto-laryngologica.

[19]  M. Sachs,et al.  Two-tone inhibition in auditory-nerve fibers. , 1968, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[20]  W. Davies.  The distribution of GABA transaminase-containing neurones in the cat cochlear nucleus , 1975, Brain Research.

[21]  C. E. Molnar,et al.  Interpretation of spontaneous spike discharge patterns of neurons in the cochlear nucleus , 1968 .

[22]  D. Caspary,et al.  Effects of microiontophoretically applied glycine and GABA on neuronal response patterns in the cochlear nuclei , 1979, Brain Research.

[23]  J. L. Hall.  Two-tone suppression in a nonlinear model of the basilar membrane. , 1977, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[24]  D. Robertson,et al.  Correspondence between sharp tuning and two-tone inhibition in primary auditory neurones , 1976, Nature.

[25]  M. Martin.  The effects of iontophoretically applied antagonists on auditory nerve and amino acid evoked excitation of anteroventral cochlear nucleus neurons , 1980, Neuropharmacology.

[26]  J. L. Hall.  Cochlear models: Two‐tone suppression and the second filter , 1979 .

[27]  Paul J. Abbas,et al.  Phenomenological model for two‐tone suppression , 1976 .

[28]  J. M. Harrison,et al.  The anterior ventral cochlear nucleus , 1965, The Journal of comparative neurology.