Peripheral auditory processing in the bobtail lizard Tiliqua rugosa

Summary

We have labelled single physiologically-characterized primary auditory neurones in the bobtail lizard and traced them to their innervation sites within the basilar papilla. The distribution of stained fibre terminals shows that low frequencies (up to a characteristic frequency, CF, of about 0.8 kHz) are processed in the smaller apical segment of the papilla and medium to high frequencies in the much longer basal segment. It is possible that the frequency ranges of these segments partly overlap in individual animals.

The tonotopic organization of the basal segment is well described by an exponential relationship; the CF increases towards the basal end. Systematic, peripheral recordings from the auditory nerve very close to the papilla confirm this tonotopicity for the basal segment.

The apical segment of the papilla shows an unusual tonotopic organization in that the CF appears to increase across the epithelium, from abneural to neural. A tonotopicity in this direction has not previously been demonstrated in vertebrates.

All stained neurones branched within the basilar papilla to innervate, typically, between 4 and 14 hair cells. The branching patterns of fibres innervating in the apical and basal papillar segment, respectively, show characteristic differences. Apical fibres tend to innervate hair cells with the same morphological polarity and often branch extensively along the segment. Basal fibres, in contrast, typically innervate about equal numbers of hair cells of opposing polarity and are more restricted in their longitudinal branching.