Sensory systems exploit parallel processing of stimulus features to enable rapid, simultaneous extraction of useful information. The mechanisms that facilitate differential extraction of stimulus features across neural pathways include intrinsic and synaptic features. A subdivision of the avian cochlear nucleus, Nucleus Angularis, extracts sound intensity information from the auditory nerve for sound localization, spectral processing, and identification purposes. Nucleus Angularis neurons consist of multiple cell subtypes, exhibit myriad responses to sound, and a wide span of efferent targets ascending the auditory brainstem. This work investigated whether auditory response patterns rely on intrinsic physiological features by coupling whole-cell recording in a brain slice with a computational model of acoustically-evoked auditory nerve input to Nucleus Angularis neurons via dynamic clamp. Results revealed that variation in intrinsic properties are sufficient to explain variation in auditory responses, and identified the low-threshold K+ current as a major contributor to temporal response diversity and neuronal input-output functions. Using the auditory nerve model to mimic acoustic amplitude modulation demonstrated that variation in intrinsic physiology was sufficient to generate temporal synchrony to modulation frequency, revealing variation in temporal modulation tuning across cell types. Variation in low-threshold K+ conductance was shown to alter temporal modulation tuning bidirectionally, with frequency-specific effects. Taken together, these data suggest that intrinsic physiological properties play a central role in shaping auditory response diversity to both simple and more naturalistic auditory stimuli. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 2, 2018. / auditory system, cochlear nucleus, computational modeling, electrophysiology, ion channel, sensory systems / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard L. Hyson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Geoffrey Strouse, University Representative; Frank Johnson, Committee Member; Michael Meredith, Committee Member; Christopher Patrick, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_653378 |
| Contributors | Brown, David H. (David Houston) (author), Hyson, Richard Lee (professor directing dissertation), Strouse, Geoffrey F. (university representative), Johnson, Frank (committee member), Meredith, Michael (committee member), Patrick, Christopher J. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Psychology (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (76 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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