Influence of Response Variability on the Coding Performance of Central Gustatory Neurons

Lemon, Christian H.; Smith, David V.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0106-06.2006

Cited by 21 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(84 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Behavioral thresholds are often better than neuronal sensitivity (Tolhurst et al, 1983;Purushothaman and Bradley, 2005;Lemon and Smith, 2006). In the IC, sensitivity of neurons to another cue to sound location, interaural time differences (ITDs), falls slightly short of human thresholds (Shackleton et al, 2003;Griffin et al, 2005).…”

Section: Determinants Of Neuronal Ild Thresholds and Implications Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaural Level Difference Discrimination Thresholds for Single Neurons in the Lateral Superior Olive

Tollin¹,

Koka²,

Tsai³

2008

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The lateral superior olive (LSO) is one of the earliest sites in the auditory pathway that is involved in processing acoustical cues to sound location. Here, we tested the hypothesis that LSO neurons can signal small changes in interaural level differences (ILDs), a cue to horizontal sound location, of pure tones based on discharge rate consistent with psychophysical performance in the discrimination of ILDs. Neural thresholds for ILD discrimination were determined from the discharge rates and associated response variability of single units in response to 300 ms tones in the LSO of barbiturate-anesthetized cats using detection theory. Neural response variability was well described by a power function of the mean rate, both in individual neurons and collectively; LSO neurons were less variable than expected from a Poisson process. Compared with psychophysical data, the best-threshold ILDs of single LSO neurons were comparable with or better than behavior over the full range of frequencies (0.3-35 kHz) and pedestal ILDs (Ϯ25 dB) explored in this study. With a pedestal ILD of 0 dB, ILD increments of 1 dB could be discriminated by some neurons, with a median of 4.35 dB across neurons. For pedestal ILDs away from 0 dB, the best-threshold ILDs were as low as 0.5 dB, with a median of 2.3 dB. These findings support the hypothesis that the LSO plays a role in the extraction of ILD, and that the representation of ILD by LSO neurons may set a lower bound on the behavioral sensitivity to ILDs.

show abstract

Section: Determinants Of Neuronal Ild Thresholds and Implications Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaural Level Difference Discrimination Thresholds for Single Neurons in the Lateral Superior Olive

Tollin¹,

Koka²,

Tsai³

2008

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…NST cells in rats code larger stimulus intensity by increasing firing rates (Ganchrow and Erickson, 1970). The neurons are broadly tuned, so a change in the firing rate of one neuron provides little information about the compound responsible (Lemon and Smith, 2006). However, differences in across-neuron patterns of NST activity are closely related to differences in perceived taste quality in rats and hamsters (Doetsch and Erickson, 1970;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taste-Evoked Responses to Sweeteners in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract Differ between C57BL/6ByJ and 129P3/J Mice

McCaughey¹

2007

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

C57BL/6ByJ (B6) and 129P3/J (129) mice have different alleles of Tas1r3, which is thought to influence gustatory transduction of sweeteners, but studies have provided conflicting results regarding differences in sweetness perception between these strains. Single-unit taste-evoked activity was measured in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) in anesthetized B6 and 129 mice to address this controversy and to provide the first electrophysiological characterization of this nucleus in mice. Neurons had properties similar to those of NST cells in other species, including mean breadth-of-tuning of 0.8 Ϯ 0.0. There were no strain differences in neural responses at 600 or 900 ms after onset, but, with a 5 s evoked period, responses to the sweeteners sucrose, maltose, acesulfame-K, SC-45647, and D-phenylalanine were significantly larger in B6 relative to 129 mice. The strains did not differ in their mean response to NaSaccharin, but it evoked an across-neuron pattern of activity that was more similar to that of sucrose and less similar to that of NaCl in B6 mice compared with 129 mice. Neurons were classified as sucrose, NaCl, or HCl responsive, with the former more common in B6 than 129 mice. Relative to other neurons, sucrose-responsive cells had delayed but more sustained sweetener responses in both strains. The results suggest that B6 mice perceive some sweeteners as more intense, but NaSaccharin as sweeter and less salty, relative to 129 mice. Furthermore, activity evoked by sweeteners includes a phasic response sent to different NST cells than a later tonic response, and only the latter differs between B6 and 129 mice.

show abstract

“…It has been difficult to support the purest version of labeled-line coding, given that neurons in the NST and other areas tend to be broadly tuned, with few of them evoking taste-quality-specific responses (Lemon and Smith 2006).…”

Section: Consideration Of Bursting May Help To Understand Gustatory Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bursting by taste-responsive cells in the rodent brain stem

Baird

Tordoff

McCaughey

2015

Journal of Neurophysiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Baird JP, Tordoff MG, McCaughey SA. Bursting by taste-responsive cells in the rodent brain stem. J Neurophysiol 113: 2434-2446, 2015. First published January 21, 2015 doi:10.1152/jn.00862.2014.-Neurons that fire in bursts have been well-characterized in vision and other neural systems, but not in taste systems. We therefore examined whether brain stem gustatory neurons fire in bursts during spontaneous activity and, if so, whether such cells differ from nonbursting cells in other characteristics. We looked at neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) of C57BL/6ByJ (B6) and 129P3/J (129) mice, and in the NST and parabrachial nucleus (PBN) of Sprague-Dawley rats. Many NST cells fired frequently with short intervals characteristic of bursting, and such neurons differed from others in their responsiveness to taste compounds. In B6 mice and rats, there was a significant positive correlation between the prevalence of short-interval firing and the net spikes evoked by application of NaCl. In contrast, in 129 mice the prevalence of short intervals was positively correlated with the size of sucrose responses. We also compared breadth-of-tuning measures based on counting either all spikes or only those following short intervals, and we found narrower tuning for the latter in the NST of B6 mice and rats. There was little evidence of spontaneous bursting in the rat PBN, and firing patterns in this nucleus were not related to the size of taste-evoked responses. We suggest that bursting may be a strategy employed by the NST to amplify the postsynaptic impact of particular taste stimuli, depending on an animal's needs. Another function may be to sharpen breadth-of-tuning and thus enhance the contrast between stimuli of different taste qualities.

show abstract

Influence of Response Variability on the Coding Performance of Central Gustatory Neurons

Cited by 21 publications

References 55 publications

Interaural Level Difference Discrimination Thresholds for Single Neurons in the Lateral Superior Olive

Interaural Level Difference Discrimination Thresholds for Single Neurons in the Lateral Superior Olive

Taste-Evoked Responses to Sweeteners in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract Differ between C57BL/6ByJ and 129P3/J Mice

Bursting by taste-responsive cells in the rodent brain stem

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About