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Single unit responses in the inferior colliculus of the awake and performing rhesus monkey

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The activity of single units in the inferior colliculus of unanesthetized monkeys was recorded during performance in an auditory reaction time task. Stimulus intensity and frequency were varied.

  2. 2.

    Spontaneous rate of unit discharge varied from 0 to 78.2 discharges per second, with a mean of 14.7 discharges/sec.

  3. 3.

    Both broadly and narrowly tuned units were encountered in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus. The temporal discharge pattern of most units varied with changes in stimulus frequency; onset bursts and/or sustained discharge suppression dominated the unit discharge at the edges of receptive fields.

  4. 4.

    Half of the units examined at several intensity levels displayed nonmonotonic relationships between evoked discharge rate and stimulus intensity, with most nonmonotonic units showing a distinct “best intensity”. The temporal response pattern of almost all units varied with changes in stimulus intensity, with onset bursts and discharge suppression increasing in occurrence with increasing intensity.

  5. 5.

    Units recorded in the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus displayed spontaneous rates which were similar to those of central nucleus units, and were affected by variation in stimulus intensity in the same fashion. However, the average initial latency of such units to intense stimuli was longer than the latency of central nucleus units.

  6. 6.

    Variations in unit discharge with changes in stimulus frequency and intensity are consistent with an interaction of excitatory and inhibitory inputs with different initial latencies, dynamic ranges and receptive fields. In particular, our data suggest that inhibitory inputs have longer initial latencies and higher thresholds. Inhibition is stronger at the edges of a unit's receptive field, and dominates at high frequencies in units with low characteristic frequency.

  7. 7.

    Our data are not consistent with previous reports that single units in the unanesthetized animal display uniformly monotonic intensity functions and uniformly broad frequency responses.

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Author notes

  1. A. Ryan Ph. D.

    Present address: Division of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, 92103, San Diego, California, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Primate Research Center, and Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Otolaryngology, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, Washington, USA

    A. Ryan Ph. D. & J. Miller

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  1. A. Ryan Ph. D.
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  2. J. Miller
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Additional information

Based in part on a dissertation submitted to fulfill requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. Supported by grants NS08181, RR00166 and GM 00666 from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service

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Ryan, A., Miller, J. Single unit responses in the inferior colliculus of the awake and performing rhesus monkey. Exp Brain Res 32, 389–407 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00238710

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00238710

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