Document Detail


Effects of reverberation on the directional sensitivity of auditory neurons across the tonotopic axis: influences of interaural time and level differences.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20534831     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
In reverberant environments, acoustic reflections interfere with the direct sound arriving at a listener's ears, distorting the binaural cues for sound localization. We investigated the effects of reverberation on the directional sensitivity of single neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of unanesthetized rabbits. We find that reverberation degrades the directional sensitivity of single neurons, although the amount of degradation depends on the characteristic frequency (CF) and the type of binaural cues available. When interaural time differences (ITDs) are the only available directional cue, low-CF cells sensitive to ITDs in the waveform fine time structure maintain better directional sensitivity in reverberation than high-CF cells sensitive to ITDs in the envelope induced by cochlear filtering. Conversely, when both ITD and interaural level difference (ILD) cues are available, directional sensitivity in reverberation is comparable throughout the tonotopic axis of the IC. This result suggests that, at high frequencies, ILDs provide better directional information than envelope ITDs, emphasizing the importance of the ILD-processing pathway for sound localization in reverberation.
Authors:
Sasha Devore; Bertrand Delgutte
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience     Volume:  30     ISSN:  1529-2401     ISO Abbreviation:  J. Neurosci.     Publication Date:  2010 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-06-10     Completed Date:  2010-08-24     Revised Date:  2010-12-17    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8102140     Medline TA:  J Neurosci     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  7826-37     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Eaton Peabody Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. sashad@alum.mit.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Acoustic Stimulation / methods
Acoustics*
Animals
Auditory Perception / physiology*
Auditory Threshold / physiology
Cues
Ear / physiology
Electrophysiology
Inferior Colliculi / cytology*
Neurons / physiology*
Rabbits
Sound Localization / physiology*
Time Factors
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
P30 DC005209/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS; P30 DC005209-019001/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS; R01 DC002258/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS; R01 DC002258-17/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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