Summary
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1.
The response probabilities and thresholds of single units in the IC of the house mouse to tones, white noise, and four synthesized mouse calls have been measured in animals anesthetized with either sodium pentobarbital or chlorprothixene.
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2.
According to their responsiveness tested within an intensity range up to 80 dB SPL neurons were classified as follows: tone insensitive, tone preferred, call-model insensitive, call-model preferred (to various degrees), noise insensitive, and noise preferred.
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3.
In the DC+DM of the IC significantly higher proportions of neurons were noise insensitive compared with the CN of the IC (Table 1).
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4.
DC+DM units from pentobarbital anesthetized animals were significantly less responsive to two of the mouse calls and generally showed a higher selectivity in response to all four calls compared with units from the CN. These differences were not seen in chlorprothixene anesthetized mice (Figs. 2, 4).
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5.
Sodium pentobarbital significantly increased the noise response thresholds in both DC+DM and CN (Figs. 3, 5).
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6.
The response selectivity to mouse calls correlated significantly with the shape and the sharpness of excitatory tuning curves (Table 2, Fig. 7).
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7.
Results are discussed with regard to anesthetic effects, differences in selectivity in the DC+DM compared to the CN and in comparison with studies on other animals.
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Abbreviations
- CF :
-
characteristic frequency
- CN :
-
central nucleus of the inferior colliculus
- DC :
-
dorsal cortex of the inferior colliculus
- DM :
-
dorsomedial nucleus of the inferior colliculus
- IC :
-
inferior colliculus
- N-group :
-
mice anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital
- T-group :
-
mice anesthetized with chlorprothixene;
- SPL :
-
sound pressure level
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Ehret, G., Moffat, A.J.M. Inferior colliculus of the house mouse. J. Comp. Physiol. 156, 637–644 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00619112
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00619112