Excitatory and facilitatory frequency response areas in the inferior colliculus of the mustached bat.

Title

Excitatory and facilitatory frequency response areas in the inferior colliculus of the mustached bat.

Creator

Portfors Christine V; Wenstrup Jeffrey J

Publisher

Hearing research

Date

2002
2002-06

Description

In the mustached bat's central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC), many neurons display facilitatory or inhibitory responses when presented with two tones of distinctly different frequencies. Our previous studies have focused on spectral interactions between specific frequency bands contained in the bat's sonar vocalization. In this study, we describe excitatory and facilitatory frequency response areas across all frequencies in the mustached bat's audible range. We show that many neurons in the ICC have more extensive frequency interactions than previously documented. We recorded responses of 96 single units to single tones and combinations of two tones. Best frequencies of the units ranged from 59-15 kHz. Forty-one units had a single, excitatory frequency response area. The rest of the units had more complex frequency tuning that included multiple excitatory frequency response areas and facilitatory frequency response areas. Some of the facilitatory frequency interactions were between one sound with energy in a sonar frequency band and a second sound with energy in a non-sonar frequency band. We also found that neurons could be facilitated by more than one additional frequency band. Our findings of extensive frequency interactions in the ICC of the mustached bat suggest that some neurons may be well suited for the analysis of complex sounds, possibly including social communication sounds.

Subject

Acoustic Stimulation; Animal; Animals; Auditory; Auditory Perception/*physiology; Brain Stem; Chiroptera/*physiology; Echolocation; Evoked Potentials; Inferior Colliculi/*physiology; Neurons/physiology; Vocalization

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

131–138

Issue

1

Volume

168

Citation

Portfors Christine V; Wenstrup Jeffrey J, “Excitatory and facilitatory frequency response areas in the inferior colliculus of the mustached bat.,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed March 19, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/3930.