Pitch‐based streaming of vowel sequences, speech‐in‐speech segregation, and frequency selectivity

2008 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 3301-3301
Author(s):  
Etienne Gaudrain ◽  
Nicolas Grimault ◽  
Eric W. Healy ◽  
Jean‐Christophe Béra
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Speech Segregation

The Relationship Between Concurrent Speech Segregation, Pitch-Based Streaming of Vowel Sequences, and Frequency Selectivity

2012 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Gaudrain ◽  
Nicolas Grimault ◽  
Eric W. Healy ◽  
Jean-Christophe Béra
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Speech Segregation ◽  
The Relationship

Subthreshold frequency selectivity in avian auditory thalamus

1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1361-1372 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Strohmann ◽  
D. W. Schwarz ◽  
E. Puil
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Membrane Properties ◽  
Resting Potential ◽  
Resonant Peak ◽  
Auditory Signal ◽  
Voltage Response ◽  
Potential Range ◽  
Na Current ◽  
Frequency Responses ◽  
Low Threshold

1. We studied the frequency responses of neurons in the nucleus ovoidalis (OV), the principal thalamic auditory relay nucleus of the chicken, in the subthreshold range of membrane potentials. The frequency response is the impedance amplitude profile evident in the voltage response to a broadband stimulus. The stimulus was a deterministic periodic current input of small amplitude, sweeping through a specified frequency range. We used whole-cell, tight-seal recording techniques in slices to study the voltage responses and membrane properties in current and voltage clamp. 2. Generally, low-frequency resonant humps with peak impedances of approximately 6 Hz characterized the frequency responses of OV neurons. This resonance was the principal determinant for frequency selectivity in the majority of OV neurons expressing only a tonic mode of firing. 3. The 6-Hz resonance was voltage dependent and most distinct where the activation ranges of a hyperpolarization activated inward current (IH) and a persistent Na+ current tend to overlap. The potential range for optimal resonance often included the resting potential. 4. Application of the Na+ current antagonist, tetrodotoxin, blocked the persistent Na+ current and most of the resonant hump at depolarized levels but did not affect the resonant peak along the frequency axis. Thus the persistent Na+ current may serve to amplify the resonance. 5. Extracellular application of Cs+, but not Ba2+, blocked a voltage sag during pulsed hyperpolarization as well as the IH current. Application of Cs+ also eliminated the 6-Hz resonance. An IH seems, therefore, instrumental for the resonance. 6. A minority of neurons that expressed low-threshold Ca2+ spikes and burst firing at hyperpolarized states displayed voltage oscillations at 2-4 Hz, spontaneously or in response to pulsatile stimuli. Application of Ni2+ blocked the oscillations and the low-threshold spikes, presumably produced by a T-type Ca2+ current. The resonance at 6 Hz, however, was only slightly affected by Ni2+. A T-type current, therefore, is critical for the 2- to 4-Hz oscillations. 7. Membrane resonance may dominate the power spectrum of subthreshold potential fluctuations. The resonance demonstrated in vitro may be stabilized by experimental procedures; its frequency may be different and more variable in vivo. Resonances in thalamic neurons may play a role in auditory signal processing in birds.

The effects of contrast on visual orientation and spatial frequency discrimination: a comparison of single cells and behavior

1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 773-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Skottun ◽  
A. Bradley ◽  
G. Sclar ◽  
I. Ohzawa ◽  
R. D. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Response Amplitude ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Characteristic Analysis ◽  
Response Variance

We have compared the effects of contrast on human psychophysical orientation and spatial frequency discrimination thresholds and on the responses of individual neurons in the cat's striate cortex. Contrast has similar effects on orientation and spatial frequency discrimination: as contrast is increased above detection threshold, orientation and spatial frequency discrimination performance improves but reaches maximum levels at quite low contrasts. Further increases in contrast produce no further improvements in discrimination. We measured the effects of contrast on response amplitude, orientation and spatial frequency selectivity, and response variance of neurons in the cat's striate cortex. Orientation and spatial frequency selectivity vary little with contrast. Also, the ratio of response variance to response mean is unaffected by contrast. Although, in many cells, response amplitude increases approximately linearly with log contrast over most of the visible range, some cells show complete or partial saturation of response amplitude at medium contrasts. Therefore, some cells show a clear increase in slope of the orientation and spatial frequency tuning functions with increasing contrast, whereas in others the slopes reach maximum values at medium contrasts. Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, we estimated the minimum orientation and spatial frequency differences that can be signaled reliably as a response change by an individual cell. This analysis shows that, on average, the discrimination of orientation or spatial frequency improves with contrast at low contrasts more than at higher contrasts. Using the optimal stimulus for each cell, we estimated the contrast threshold of 48 neurons. Most cells had contrast thresholds below 5%. Thresholds were only slightly higher for nonoptimal stimuli. Therefore, increasing the contrast of sinusoidal gratings above approximately 10% will not produce large increases in the number of responding cells. The observed effects of contrast on the response characteristics of nonsaturating cortical cells do not appear consistent with the psychophysical results. Cells that reach their maximum response at low-to-medium contrasts may account for the contrast independence of psychophysical orientation and spatial frequency discrimination thresholds at medium and high contrasts.

Compact Bandpass-Filtering Response Power Dividers with High Isolation and High Frequency Selectivity

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaijun Song ◽  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Yu Zhu ◽  
Maoyu Fan ◽  
Yong Fan
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Power Dividers ◽  
High Isolation

Encoding timing and intensity in the ventral cochlear nucleus of the cat

1986 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. S. Rhode ◽  
P. H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Firing Rate ◽  
Cochlear Nucleus ◽  
Auditory Nerve ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Nerve Fibers ◽  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
Firing Rates ◽  
Ventral Cochlear Nucleus ◽  
Auditory Nerve Fibers ◽  
Different Cell Types

Physiological response properties of neurons in the ventral cochlear nucleus have a variety of features that are substantially different from the stereotypical auditory nerve responses that serve as the principal source of activation for these neurons. These emergent features are the result of the varying distribution of auditory nerve inputs on the soma and dendrites of the various cell types within the nucleus; the intrinsic membrane characteristics of the various cell types causing different responses to the same input in different cell types; and secondary excitatory and inhibitory inputs to different cell types. Well-isolated units were recorded with high-impedance glass microelectrodes, both intracellularly and extracellularly. Units were characterized by their temporal response to short tones, rate vs. intensity relation, and response areas. The principal response patterns were onset, chopper, and primary-like. Onset units are characterized by a well-timed first spike in response to tones at the characteristic frequency. For frequencies less than 1 kHz, onset units can entrain to the stimulus frequency with greater precision than their auditory nerve inputs. This implies that onset units receive converging inputs from a number of auditory nerve fibers. Onset units are divided into three subcategories, OC, OL, and OI. OC units have extraordinarily wide dynamic ranges and low-frequency selectivity. Some are capable of sustaining firing rates of 800 spikes/s at high intensities. They have the smallest standard deviation and coefficient of variation of the first spike latency of any cells in the cochlear nuclei. OC units are candidates for encoding intensity. OI and OL units differ from OC units in that they have dynamic ranges and frequency selectivity ranges much like those of auditory nerve fibers. They differ from one another in their steady-state firing rates; OI units fire mainly at the onset of a tone. OI units also differ from OL units in that they prefer frequency sweeps in the low to high direction. Primary-like-with-notch (PLN) units also respond to tones with a well-timed first spike. They differ from onset cells in that the onset peak is not always as precise as the spontaneous rate is higher. A comparison of spontaneous firing rate and saturation firing rate of PLN units with auditory nerve fibers suggest that PLN units receive one to four auditory nerve fiber inputs. Chopper units fire in a sustained regular manner when they are excited by sound.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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