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The Binaural Interaction Component in Barn Owl (Tyto alba) Presents few Differences to Mammalian Data

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Abstract

The auditory brainstem response (ABR) is an evoked potential that reflects the responses to sound by brainstem neural centers. The binaural interaction component (BIC) is obtained by subtracting the sum of the monaural ABR responses from the binaural response. Its latency and amplitude change in response to variations in binaural cues. The BIC is thus thought to reflect the activity of binaural nuclei and is used to non-invasively test binaural processing. However, any conclusions are limited by a lack of knowledge of the relevant processes at the level of individual neurons. The aim of this study was to characterize the ABR and BIC in the barn owl, an animal where the ITD-processing neural circuits are known in great detail. We recorded ABR responses to chirps and to 1 and 4 kHz tones from anesthetized barn owls. General characteristics of the barn owl ABR were similar to those observed in other bird species. The most prominent peak of the BIC was associated with nucleus laminaris and is thus likely to reflect the known processes of ITD computation in this nucleus. However, the properties of the BIC were very similar to previously published mammalian data and did not reveal any specific diagnostic features. For example, the polarity of the BIC was negative, which indicates a smaller response to binaural stimulation than predicted by the sum of monaural responses. This is contrary to previous predictions for an excitatory-excitatory system such as nucleus laminaris. Similarly, the change in BIC latency with varying ITD was not distinguishable from mammalian data. Contrary to previous predictions, this behavior appears unrelated to the known underlying neural delay-line circuitry. In conclusion, the generation of the BIC is currently inadequately understood and common assumptions about the BIC need to be reconsidered when interpreting such measurements.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (CRC/TRR31 “Active Hearing” and Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4All”). We thank Rainer Beutelmann for his technical assistance. Georg Klump provided invaluable input early in the project.

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  1. Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all” and Research Center Neurosensory Science and Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Str. 9-11, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany

    Nicolas Palanca-Castan, Geneviève Laumen & Christine Köppl

  2. Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, 677 Beacon St, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Darrin Reed

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  1. Nicolas Palanca-Castan
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  2. Geneviève Laumen
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Correspondence to Nicolas Palanca-Castan.

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Palanca-Castan, N., Laumen, G., Reed, D. et al. The Binaural Interaction Component in Barn Owl (Tyto alba) Presents few Differences to Mammalian Data. JARO 17, 577–589 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-016-0583-7

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