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The responses of single neurones in the cochlear nucleus of the cat as a function of their location and the anaesthetic state

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The response of single neurones in the cat cochlear nucleus to single tones have been studied as a function of their location in the dorsal, anteroventral and posteroventral divisions, with and without a variety of anaesthetics, and with particular attention to systematic analysis of the effective frequency bands and the time-course of responses.

  2. 2.

    The neurons were classified into five Response Types; (1) excitatory only; (2) excitatory, with inhibition at the termination of effective tones; (3) excitatory, with inhibition to one or more adjacent frequency “side-bands”; (4) mainly inhibitory over a wide band of frequencies with one or more, usually adjacent, excitatory frequency bands; (5) inhibitory only at threshold, with or without “off-excitation”, or high threshold excitatory “side-bands”.

  3. 3.

    Substantial differences in the distribution of Response Types, and in particular of inhibitory phenomena, were found between dorsal and ventral divisions, and in the dorsal division between anaesthetized and unanaesthetized conditions. No significant differences were found between anteroventral and posteroventral divisions, with or without anaesthesia. Response Type 1 neurones were almost entirely restricted to the ventral divisions, where Type 2 was the commonest. 92% of the dorsal division neurones in the unanaesthetized or chloralose anaesthetized preparations, and 50% in the barbiturate and halothane preparations could be inhibited by single tones, i.e. were of Types 3, 4 or 5. In the ventral divisions the corresponding proportions were approximately 10% under both conditions of anaesthesia.

  4. 4.

    Pentobarbitone and halothane anaesthesia reduce the inhibition on neurones of the dorsal division.

  5. 5.

    It is concluded that the dorsal nucleus is a more complex and more highly differentiated division of the cochlear nucleus than the ventral, both functionally and anatomically.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Council Group, Department of Communication, University of Keele, Staffs, (England)

    E. F. Evans & P. G. Nelson

  2. Behavioral Biology Branch, N.I.C.H.D., National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, (USA)

    E. F. Evans & P. G. Nelson

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  1. E. F. Evans
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  2. P. G. Nelson
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Evans, E.F., Nelson, P.G. The responses of single neurones in the cochlear nucleus of the cat as a function of their location and the anaesthetic state. Exp Brain Res 17, 402–427 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234103

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234103

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