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Prediction of auditory spatial acuity from neural images on the owl's auditory space map

Nature volume 424, pages 771–774 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The owl can discriminate changes in the location of sound sources as small as 3° and can aim its head to within 2° of a source1,2. A typical neuron in its midbrain space map has a spatial receptive field that spans 40°—a width that is many times the behavioural threshold3. Here we have quantitatively examined the relationship between neuronal activity and perceptual acuity in the auditory space map in the barn owl midbrain. By analysing changes in firing rate resulting from small changes of stimulus azimuth, we show that most neurons can reliably signal changes in source location that are smaller than the behavioural threshold. Each source is represented in the space map by a focus of activity in a population of neurons. Displacement of the source causes the pattern of activity in this population to change. We show that this change predicts the owl's ability to detect a change in source location.

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Figure 1: Behavioural discrimination of azimuthal source separation.
Figure 2: Neuronal discrimination.
Figure 3: Average neuronal discrimination approximates behavioural performance.
Figure 4: Neuronal computation of spatial discrimination.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Keller for technical assistance, and J. Bala, S. Colburn, P. Dassonville and R. Marrocco for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the McKnight Foundation to T.T.T., and from the NIH to M.W.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403, USA

    Avinash D. S. Bala, Matthew. W. Spitzer & Terry T. Takahashi

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  1. Avinash D. S. Bala
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  2. Matthew. W. Spitzer
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  3. Terry T. Takahashi
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Correspondence to Avinash D. S. Bala.

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Bala, A., Spitzer, M. & Takahashi, T. Prediction of auditory spatial acuity from neural images on the owl's auditory space map. Nature 424, 771–774 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01835

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