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Auditory-Nerve Response, Afferent Signals

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Definition

Sequences of action potentials (spikes) of individual auditory-nerve fibers (ANFs), the primary auditory afferents, in response to sounds impinging upon the ears.

Detailed Description

Anatomical Foundations

Acoustic information relayed from the inner ear to the central nervous system is encoded in the sequences of spikes produced by (type I) ANFs. In mammals, each ANF contacts only one receptor cell (an inner hair cell, IHC) and is excited by transmitter release events from a single ribbon synapse (Ashmore 2010; Matthews and Fuchs 2010; Chapochnikov et al. 2014). Each IHC has 5–30 ribbons, depending upon species and cochlear location (e.g., Meyer et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2018). The ANFs innervating a given IHC therefore share some, although not all, functional response properties.

Spontaneous Activity

ANFs produce spikes in the absence of external sound (spontaneous activity). The mean spontaneous rate varies between ANFs, in mammals from near zero up to more than 100...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany

    Peter Heil

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  1. Peter Heil
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Correspondence to Peter Heil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, GA, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Ranu Jung

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Rodica Curtu

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Heil, P. (2019). Auditory-Nerve Response, Afferent Signals. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_424-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_424-7

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Auditory-Nerve Response, Afferent Signals
    Published:
    10 August 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_424-7

  2. Auditory Nerve Response, Afferent Signals
    Published:
    06 May 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_424-6

  3. Original

    Auditory Nerve Response, Afferent Signals
    Published:
    07 February 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_424-5

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