持续与间断噪声前掩蔽条件下小鼠下丘神经元不同反应模式.pdfVIP

Acta Physiologica Sinica , April 25, 2006, 58 (2): 141-148 141 Research Paper Different forward masking patterns of sustained noise burst and segmental noise burst in the inferior collicular neurons of the mouse LI An-An, CHEN Qi-Cai, WU Fei-Jian* School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China Abstract: Although there has been a growing body of literature showing the neural correlation of forward masking caused by a pure tone masker in the auditory neurons, relative few studies have addressed the description of how the forward masking caused by a noise burst, especially a sequence of noise burst, is transformed into neuronal representation in the central auditory system. Using a noise forward masking paradigm under free field stimuli conditions, this in vivo study was devoted to exploring it in the inferior collicular (IC) neurons of the mouse (Mus musculus KM). A total of 96 IC neurons were recorded. Rate-intensity functions (RIFs) with and without the presentation of masker, sustained noise burst (SNB) or segmental noise burst (SGNB), were measured in 51 neurons. We found that the relative masker intensities were distributed over a wide range between 21 dB below the minimum threshold (MT) and 19 dB above the MT of the corresponding probe tone. The masking effect of the SGNB on firing rate in nearly half of neurons (type I, 45.10%) was stronger than that of the SNB (P0.001), whereas in a smaller fraction of neurons (type III, 17.65%), it was weaker than that of the SNB (P0.001). There was no significant difference in masking effect between the SNB and SGNB in type II neurons (37.25%, P0.05). Irrespective of type I or type III neurons, the inhibitory effects of both kinds of maskers were all greater at lower probe intensities but decreased significantly with the increase of probe intensity (P0.001). Interestingly, as the probe intensity increased, the