Entracking codes pitch through constant firing rate while spike phase stays irrelevant

Evidence

One of the most critical issues is phase invariance, which we see as an experimental issue. Some neurons in the CN show good envelope coding to quasi-frequency-modulated (QFM) stimuli (Rhode 1995 ). Possibly there are always some neurons entracking at the pitch-related period, no matter what the phase spectrum is. Finally, entracking is invariably accompanied by exquisite phase-locking. One could debate whether it fundamentally is a temporal or rate code. The temporal aspects of the response are disregarded here in the sense that it is the constancy in rate, within and across neurons and stimuli, that codes for pitch, while the phase of spiking is surmised to be irrelevant. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4494