Abstract.
Topologic maps at consecutive levels of sensory pathways indicate behaviorally relevant features of stimuli at increasing degrees of complexity. In the auditory system, except for tonotopic maps, the nature of represented features is unknown. In a model analogous to visual map formation we show that in the auditory midbrain, layers of neurons with preference to the same frequency (isofrequency planes) may hold maps of two basic, mutually orthogonal parameters – instantaneous amplitude and phase – of basilar membrane displacement at the cochlear location responding to that frequency. The proposed neural tuning to frequency, amplitude, and phase implies that sound is transformed into specific temporal trajectories of neural activation, with consequences for experimental design and interpretation of neural response behavior.
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Received: 16 December 2001 / Accepted in revised form: 18 April 2002
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ID="*" Present address: Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Leimgrubenweg 12-14, 89075 Ulm, Germany
Acknowledgements. We are grateful to Peter Heil, Markus Kiefer, Ralf Möller, Günther Palm, Alan R. Palmer, and Manfred Spitzer for helpful comments, and to Thomas Nau for technical support. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grants SFB 527 and Eh 53/18-1).
Correspondence to: B. Herrnberger (e-mail: baerbel.herrnberger@medizin.uni-ulm.de)
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Herrnberger, B., Kempf, S. & Ehret, G. Basic maps in the auditory midbrain. Biol Cybern 87, 231–240 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-002-0337-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-002-0337-y