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Synaptic Mechanisms of Coincidence Detection

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Synaptic Mechanisms in the Auditory System

Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 41))

Abstract

Localization of sounds in space is a capability crucial to an animal’s survival in a world full of predators, scarce of prey, and with heavy selection pressures for mates. For neuroscientists, sound localization offers an opportunity to ask precise questions relating sensory stimuli to their neural representation and the computation of sensory percepts. Both monaural and binaural cues are used to generate a sense of auditory spatial location, but the most thorough analysis of localization has focused on the use of binaural temporal cues. The study of the binaural cues allows the investigation of the neural mechanisms of sensory integration as the brain combines information from the left and right ears. The field has been enriched by studying animals that have highly developed capabilities to localize sound, such as the barn owl (Tyto alba), which hunts its prey in complete darkness (Payne 1971; Konishi 1973a, b). When combined with cellular and anatomical studies in the chicken and several other avian species, a remarkable confluence of evidence has emerged to reveal the synaptic and biophysical mechanisms that combine to create specialized brainstem neural circuits that perform coincidence detection on the temporal information and encode sound location, as described in this chapter.

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Acknowledgments

The authors received support for their work from the National Institutes of Health grants R01DC000436 (C.E.C.) and R03DC007972 (K.M.M.) and a grant from the National Organization for Hearing Research (K.M.M.) The authors thank C. Köppl and H. Kuba for helpful comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742–4415, USA

    Katrina M. MacLeod & Catherine E. Carr

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  1. Katrina M. MacLeod
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  2. Catherine E. Carr
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Correspondence to Katrina M. MacLeod .

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  1. Vollum Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University, SW. Sam Jackson Park Rd. 3181, Portland, 97239-3098, Oregon, USA

    Laurence O. Trussell

  2. , Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742-4415, Maryland, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

  3. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 02543, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard R. Fay

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MacLeod, K.M., Carr, C.E. (2012). Synaptic Mechanisms of Coincidence Detection. In: Trussell, L., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Synaptic Mechanisms in the Auditory System. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 41. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9517-9_6

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