Auditory nerve spike PSTH peaks recur at 2π phase intervals tied to best frequency

Evidence

Intracellular recordings from NM axons in NL supported the hypothesis that oscillatory neurophonic click responses were composed of many NM click responses. Averaging intracellular click recordings from NM afferents revealed two to five PSTH peaks (Fig. 2a ). PSTH peaks were separated in time by intervals equal to the inverse of the neuron’s best frequency (BF), a 2π phase interval. Individual spike timing varied, consistent with phase locking (Anderson et al. 1970 ; Sachs et al. 1974 ; Joris et al. 1994 ; Köppl 1997 ). For each intracellular recording, we quantified the temporal distance between the PSTH peaks. All showed a similar 2π separation of peaks. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2857

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘2π phase interval’ means: PSTH peaks separated by the inverse of best frequency.