Temporal representation of rippled noise in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of the chinchilla

Abstract

This paper describes the temporal responses of anteroventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN) units in the chinchilla to rippled noises. Rippled noise is generated when a wideband noise is delayed and added (cos+ noise) or subtracted (cos- noise) to the undelayed noise. Renewal densities were constructed to evaluate synchronous discharges at the delay. In response to rippled noise, AVCN units which show phase locking to best frequency (BF) tones gave renewal densities having major peaks at the delay for cos+ noise, but nulls at the delay for cos- noise. Most AVCN units which did not show BF phase locking gave renewal densities that did not contain features related to the rippled noise delay; a few of these nonphase-locked units did show peaks in renewal densities for both cos+ and cos- noises. Synchrony at the rippled noise delay was also demonstrated with evoked potential recording. Autocorrelation functions of the neurophonic potential showed peaks at the rippled noise delay for both cos+ and cos- noises. In addition, peaks could be observed in the autocorrelation functions of neurophonic potentials for rippled noises with delays as short as 1 ms; peaks were never observed in renewal densities of single units for ripple delays as short as 1 ms. The results show that a temporal representation of rippled noise delay does exist in the AVCN and are consistent with current hypotheses regarding functions of AVCN subsystems. The temporal representation of the delay is a presumptive neural code for the pitches of rippled noises.