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Sensitivity to spectral interaural intensity difference cues in space-specific neurons of the barn owl

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Abstract

Barn owls use interaural intensity differences to localize sounds in the vertical plane. At a given elevation the magnitude of the interaural intensity difference cue varies with frequency, creating an interaural intensity difference spectrum of cues which is characteristic of that direction. To test whether space-specific cells are sensitive to spectral interaural intensity difference cues, pure-tone interaural intensity difference tuning curves were taken at multiple different frequencies for single neurons in the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus. For a given neuron, the interaural intensity differences eliciting the maximum response (the best interaural intensity differences) changed with the frequency of the stimulus by an average maximal difference of 9.4±6.2 dB. The resulting spectral patterns of these neurally preferred interaural intensity differences exhibited a high degree of similarity to the acoustic interaural intensity difference spectra characteristic of restricted regions in space. Compared to stimuli whose interaural intensity difference spectra matched the preferred spectra, stimuli with inverted spectra elicited a smaller response, showing that space-specific neurons are sensitive to the shape of the spectrum. The underlying mechanism is an inhibition for frequency-specific interaural intensity differences which differ from the preferred spectral pattern. Collectively, these data show that space-specific neurons are sensitive to spectral interaural intensity difference cues and support the idea that behaving barn owls use such cues to precisely localize sounds.

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Abbreviations

ABI:

average binaural intensity

HRTF:

head-related transfer function

ICx:

external nucleus of the inferior colliculus

IID:

interaural intensity difference

ITD:

interaural time difference

OT:

optic tectum

RMS:

root mean square

VLVp:

nucleus ventralis lemnisci laterale, pars posterior

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Masakazu Konishi for guidance and support, to Kip Keller, Klaus Hartung, and Terry Takahashi for the generous use of their data, to Chris Malek, Gene Akutagawa, Mike Walsh, Herb Adams, and Janet Baer for technical help, to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (DC00134) for funding, and to Masakazu Konishi, José Luis Peña, and Sharad Shanbhag for comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    B. J. Arthur

  2. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, W253 Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    B. J. Arthur

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Arthur, B.J. Sensitivity to spectral interaural intensity difference cues in space-specific neurons of the barn owl. J Comp Physiol A 190, 91–104 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0476-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0476-1

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