Auditory nerve fibers of three spontaneous-rate types code different level ranges

Evidence

Due to the saturation and limited dynamic ranges of individual fibers, an individual neuron cannot code the entire range of sound levels that are perceived by the human ear. The dynamic range (the range of levels between threshold and saturation) of an individual neuron is on the order of 20 to 40 dB and rarely exceeds 60 dB. Note that the dynamic range of human hearing is considered to be approximately 100 to 120 dB, suggesting that all three fiber types must be used to represent the entire dynamic range of hearing. Consider then that the high SR/low threshold fibers would be most involved in representing lowlevel stimuli, such as when auditory threshold is measured. On the other hand, high threshold/low SR fibers are most involved in auditory detection when a background noise is present. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 240 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Full hearing range requires pooling three auditory nerve fiber types; High spontaneous-rate nerve fibers have low thresholds and vice versa; Individual auditory nerve fibers cannot code the full hearing dynamic range — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 240 (+5 more)

Related

• Individual auditory nerve fibers cannot code the full hearing dynamic range (similarity 0.91)
• Auditory nerve fibers divide into three types by spontaneous firing rate. (similarity 0.90)
• Stimulus level is coded by firing rate plus the pattern across fiber types (similarity 0.89)
• No single auditory nerve fiber spans the full dynamic range of human hearing. (similarity 0.89)
• Different auditory nerve fiber types have distinct response thresholds. (similarity 0.89)
• Auditory nerve fibers’ thresholds correlate inversely with their spontaneous firing rates. (similarity 0.88)
• Single auditory neurons encode only a narrow 20-40 dB dynamic range (similarity 0.88)
• High spontaneous-rate nerve fibers have low thresholds and vice versa (similarity 0.86)
• A single auditory nerve fibre’s firing is unpredictable and noisy (similarity 0.86)
• Loudness coding requires pooled responses across many auditory nerve fibers (similarity 0.85)
• Single auditory nerve fibres encode only a narrow 20-40 dB dynamic range. (similarity 0.85)
• The lower slope of auditory excitation patterns is constant at 27 dB per Bark (similarity 0.85)
• The auditory system’s ~120 dB dynamic range exceeds any single nerve fiber’s coding capacity (similarity 0.85)
• High spontaneous-rate fibers have low thresholds while low SR fibers have high thresholds. (similarity 0.85)
• Clean auditory sensation emerges only from pooling many noisy nerve fibres (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Full hearing range requires pooling three auditory nerve fiber types #corroborates (0.93)
• Individual auditory nerve fibers cannot code the full hearing dynamic range #corroborates (0.92) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 240
• Stimulus level is coded by firing rate plus the pattern across fiber types #expands (0.88)
• Single auditory neurons encode only a narrow 20-40 dB dynamic range #corroborates (0.88) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 785
• High spontaneous-rate nerve fibers have low thresholds and vice versa #expands (0.85)
• Cochlear neuropathy harms supra-threshold encoding because noise targets high-threshold auditory fibers #complicates (0.82) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5873
• Pooled across fibers, spike timing codes the stimulus period as a multiple #expands (0.78)
• Nerve firing intervals are integer multiples of the stimulus period #expands (0.75)