Brughera, A. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2020

Sensitivity to Envelope Interaural Time Difference: Models of Diverse LSO Neurons

A potential auditory spatial cue, the envelope interaural time difference (ITDENV) is encoded in the lateral superior olive (LSO) of the brainstem. Here, we explore computationally modeled LSO neurons, in reflecting behavioral sensitivity to ITDENV. Transposed tones (half-wave rectified low-frequency tones, frequency-limited, then multiplying a high-frequency carrier) stimulate a bilateral auditory-periphery model driving each model LSO neuron, where electrical membrane impedance low-pass filters the inputs driven by amplitude-modulated sound, limiting the upper modulation rate for ITDENV sensitivity. Just-noticeable differences in ITDENV for model LSO neuronal populations, each distinct to reflect the LSO range in membrane frequency response, collectively reproduce the largest variation in ITDENV sensitivity across human listeners. At each stimulus carrier frequency (4-10 kHz) and modulation rate (32-800 Hz), the top-performing model population generally reflects top-range human performance. Model neurons of each speed are the top performers for a particular range of modulation rate. Off-frequency listening extends model ITDENV sensitivity above 500-Hz modulation, as sensitivity decreases with increasing modulation rate. With increasing carrier frequency, the combination of decreased top membrane speed and decreased number of model neurons capture decreasing human sensitivity to ITDENV.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Brainstem mechanisms contributing to accurate source localisation are suited to the reverberant structure of natural acoustic scenes

Listeners perceive sound-energy as originating from the direction of its source, even as direct sound is followed milliseconds later by reflected sound from multiple different directions. Early-arriving sound is emphasised in the ascending auditory pathway, including the medial superior olive (MSO) where binaural neurons encode the interaural time difference (ITD) cue for spatial location. Behaviourally, weighting of ITD conveyed during rising sound-energy is stronger at 600 Hz, a frequency with higher reverberant energy, than at 200 Hz where reverberant energy is lower. Here we computationally explore the combined effectiveness of adaptation before ITD-encoding, and excitatory binaural coincidence detection within MSO neurons, in emphasising ITD conveyed in early-arriving sound. With excitatory inputs from adapting model spherical bushy cells (SBCs) of the bilateral cochlear nuclei, a Hodgkin-Huxley-type model MSO neuron reproduces the frequency-dependent emphasis of rising vs. peak sound-energy in ITD-encoding. Maintaining the adaptation in model SBCs, and adjusting membrane speed in model MSO neurons, hemispheric populations of model SBCs and MSO neurons, with simplified membranes for computational efficiency, also reproduce the stronger weighting of ITD information conveyed during rising sound-energy at 600 Hz compared to 200 Hz. This hemispheric model further demonstrates a link between strong weighting of spatial information during rising sound-energy, and correct unambiguous lateralisation of reverberant speech.

neuroscience↗