Brainstem neurons can fire one spike per sound cycle, unlike auditory nerve fibers

Evidence

In the AN, ISI histograms of responses to low-frequency pure tones are always multimodal (Kiang et al. 1965 ); i.e., after firing a spike, fibers often skip one or more cycles before firing another spike. Cycle skipping allows temporal and average rate behavior to be uncoupled. … In contrast, in the CNS, skipping of cycles is often less prominent. At low stimulus frequencies, higher modes in the ISI distribution, at multiples of the stimulus period, can be strongly attenuated relative to the mode corresponding to the tone period (references: see Sect. 3 ). One corollary of this behavior is that average firing rate can approach the stimulus frequency. Perfect entracking means that a neuron fires one spike per cycle so that the firing rate equals the stimulus repetition frequency. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4494

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core term ‘entracking’ as firing one spike per stimulus cycle.