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Peripheral auditory neurons are tuned to single frequencies of sound. In the central auditory system, excitatory (or facilitatory) and inhibitory neural interactions take place at multiple levels and produce neurons with sharp level-tolerant frequency-tuning curves, neurons tuned to parameters other than frequency, cochleotopic (frequency) maps, which are different from the peripheral cochleotopic map, and computational maps. The mechanisms to create the response properties of these neurons have been considered to be solely caused by divergent and convergent projections of neurons in the ascending auditory system. The recent research on the corticofugal (descending) auditory system, however, indicates that the corticofugal system adjusts and improves auditory signal processing by modulating neural responses and maps. The corticofugal function consists of at least the following subfunctions. auditory system ͉ descending system ͉ learning and memory ͉ plasticity ͉ tonotopic map T he central auditory system creates many physiologically distinct types of neurons for auditory signal processing. Their response properties have been interpreted to be produced by divergent and convergent interactions between neurons in the ascending auditory system. Until recently, the contribution of the descending (corticofugal) system to the shaping (or even creation) of their response properties has hardly been considered. Recent findings indicate that the corticofugal system plays important roles in shaping or even creating the response properties of central auditory neurons and in reorganizing cochleotopic (frequency) and computational (e.g., echo-delay) maps. Therefore, the understanding of the neural mechanisms for auditory signal processing is incomplete without the exploration of the functional roles of the corticofugal system. In this article, we first enumerate several types of neurons and computational maps created in the bat's central auditory system and then describe the anatomy and physiology of the corticofugal system. Neurons Tuned to Acoustic Parameters Characterizing Biosonar Signals and Cochleotopic and Computational MapsAll peripheral neurons are tuned to single frequencies (best frequencies, BFs). In the central auditory system, excitatory, inhibitory, and facilitatory neural interactions take place at multiple levels and produce neurons with sharp level-tolerant (the width of a frequency tuning curve is narrow regardless of sound levels) frequency tuning curves (1) and also neurons tuned to specific values of parameters other than frequency. Some of these neurons apparently are related to the processing of biosonar signals. They are latency-constant, phasic on-responding neurons (2, 3); paradoxical latency-shift neurons (4); durationtuned neurons (5) amplitude coordinates for the fine spatio-temporal representation of periodic frequency and amplitude modulations of echoes from flying insects (9). In the superior colliculus of the big brown bat, there is a space map, and some neurons are tuned to a sound source at ...

The descending (corticofugal) auditory system adjusts and improves auditory signal processing in the subcortical auditory nuclei. The auditory cortex and corticofugal system evoke small, short-term changes of the subcortical auditory nuclei in response to a sound repetitively delivered to an animal. These changes are specific to the parameters characterizing the sound. When the sound becomes significant to the animal through conditioning (associative learning), the changes are augmented and the cortical changes become long-term. There are two types of reorganizations: expanded reorganization resulting from centripetal shifts in tuning curves of neurons toward the values of the parameters characterizing a sound and compressed reorganization resulting from centrifugal shifts in tuning curves of neurons away from these values. The two types of reorganizations are based on a single mechanism consisting of two components: facilitation and inhibition.

Recent findings indicate that the corticofugal system would play an important role in cortical plasticity as well as collicular plasticity. To understand the role of the corticofugal system in plasticity, therefore, we studied the amount and the time course of plasticity in the inferior colliculus (IC) and auditory cortex (AC) evoked by focal electrical stimulation of the AC and also the effect of electrical stimulation of the somatosensory cortex on the plasticity evoked by the stimulation of the AC. In adult big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), we made the following major findings. 1) Electric stimulation of the AC evokes best frequency (BF) shifts, i.e., shifts in frequency-response curves of collicular and cortical neurons. These BF shifts start to occur within 2 min, reach a maximum (or plateau) at 30 min, and then recover approximately 180 min after a 30-min-long stimulus session. When the stimulus session is lengthened from 30 to 90 min, the plateau lasts approximately 60 min, but BF shifts recover approximately 180 min after the session. 2) The electric stimulation of the somatosensory cortex delivered immediately after that of the AC, as in fear conditioning, evokes a dramatic lengthening of the recovery period of the cortical BF shifts but not that of the collicular BF shift. The electric stimulation of the somatosensory cortex delivered before that of the AC, as in backward conditioning, has no effect on the collicular and cortical BF shifts. 3) Electric stimulation of the AC evokes BF shifts not only in the ipsilateral IC and AC but also in the contralateral IC and AC. BF shifts are smaller in amount and shorter in recovery time for contralateral collicular and cortical neurons than for ipsilateral ones. Our findings support the hypothesis that the AC and the corticofugal system have an intrinsic mechanism for reorganization of the IC and AC, that the reorganization is highly specific to a value of an acoustic parameter (frequency), and that the reorganization is augmented by excitation of nonauditory sensory cortex that makes the acoustic stimulus behaviorally relevant to the animal through associative learning.

Temporal filtering is a fundamental operation of nervous systems. In peripheral sensory systems, the temporal pattern of spiking activity can encode various stimulus qualities, and temporal filtering allows postsynaptic neurons to detect behaviorally-relevant stimulus features from these spike trains. Intrinsic excitability, short-term synaptic plasticity, and voltage-dependent dendritic conductances have all been identified as mechanisms that can establish temporal filtering behavior in single neurons. Here we show that synaptic integration of temporally-summating excitation and inhibition can establish diverse temporal filters of presynaptic input. Mormyrid electric fish communicate by varying the intervals between electric organ discharges. The timing of each discharge is coded by peripheral receptors into precisely-timed spikes. Within the midbrain posterior exterolateral nucleus, temporal filtering by individual neurons results in selective responses to a particular range of presynaptic interspike intervals. These neurons are diverse in their temporal filtering properties, reflecting the wide range of intervals that must be detected during natural communication behavior. By manipulating presynaptic spike timing with high temporal resolution, we demonstrate that tuning to behaviorally-relevant patterns of presynaptic input is similar in vivo and in vitro. We reveal that GABAergic inhibition plays a critical role in establishing different temporal filtering properties. Further, our results demonstrate that temporal summation of excitation and inhibition establishes selective responses to high and low rates of synaptic input, respectively. Simple models of synaptic integration reveal that variation in these two competing influences provides a basic mechanism for generating diverse temporal filters of synaptic input.