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Temporal and rate representations of time-varying signals in the auditory cortex of awake primates

Nature Neuroscience volume 4, pages 1131–1138 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Because auditory cortical neurons have limited stimulus-synchronized responses, cortical representations of more rapidly occurring but still perceivable stimuli remain unclear. Here we show that there are two largely distinct populations of neurons in the auditory cortex of awake primates: one with stimulus-synchronized discharges that, with a temporal code, explicitly represented slowly occurring sound sequences and the other with non-stimulus-synchronized discharges that, with a rate code, implicitly represented rapidly occurring events. Furthermore, neurons of both populations displayed selectivity in their discharge rates to temporal features within a short time-window. Our results suggest that the combination of temporal and rate codes in the auditory cortex provides a possible neural basis for the wide perceptual range of temporal information.

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Figure 1: Stimulus-synchronized responses to repetitive acoustic events.
Figure 2: Non-synchronized rate responses to click trains.
Figure 3: Population responses to click trains.
Figure 4: Neural selectivity to temporal asymmetry.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank E. Bartlett and S. Kadia for helpful comments on the manuscript and A. Pistorio for assistance with animal training. This work was supported by NIH Grant DC03180 and by a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (X. Wang).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Laboratory of Auditory Neurophysiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 720 Rutland Avenue, Ross 424, Baltimore, 21205, Maryland, USA

    Thomas Lu, Li Liang & Xiaoqin Wang

  2. Hearing Center, Pear River Hospital of First Medical University, Guangzhou, 510282, GuangDong Province, P.R. China

    Li Liang

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  1. Thomas Lu
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Correspondence to Xiaoqin Wang.

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Lu, T., Liang, L. & Wang, X. Temporal and rate representations of time-varying signals in the auditory cortex of awake primates. Nat Neurosci 4, 1131–1138 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn737

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