Abstract.
Many auditory neurons possess low-threshold potassium currents (I KLT ) that enhance their responsiveness to rapid and coincident inputs. We present recordings from gerbil medial superior olivary (MSO) neurons in vitro and modeling results that illustrate how I KLT improves the detection of brief signals, of weak signals in noise, and of the coincidence of signals (as needed for sound localization). We quantify the enhancing effect of I KLT on temporal processing with several measures: signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), reverse correlation or spike-triggered averaging of input currents, and interaural time difference (ITD) tuning curves. To characterize how I KLT , which activates below spike threshold, influences a neuron’s voltage rise toward threshold, i.e., how it filters the inputs, we focus first on the response to weak and noisy signals. Cells and models were stimulated with a computer-generated steady barrage of random inputs, mimicking weak synaptic conductance transients (the “noise”), together with a larger but still subthreshold postsynaptic conductance, EPSG (the “signal”). Reduction of I KLT decreased the SNR, mainly due to an increase in spontaneous firing (more “false positive”). The spike-triggered reverse correlation indicated that I KLT shortened the integration time for spike generation. I KLT also heightened the model’s timing selectivity for coincidence detection of simulated binaural inputs. Further, ITD tuning is shifted in favor of a slope code rather than a place code by precise and rapid inhibition onto MSO cells (Brand et al. 2002). In several ways, low-threshold outward currents are seen to shape integration of weak and strong signals in auditory neurons.
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Acknowledgments.
Research for this project was supported by NIH/NIMH: MH62595 and NSF: DMS 0078420.
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Svirskis, G., Dodla, R. & Rinzel, J. Subthreshold outward currents enhance temporal integration in auditory neurons. Biol. Cybern. 89, 333–340 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-003-0438-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-003-0438-2