Neural ITD maps require precise phase delays, not stable absolute latency

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. … The microsecond precision needed to construct these maps of ITD appears to be achieved through precisely regulated phase delays, rather than by regulation of absolute latency. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2857

Categorization

• QUESTION: How does the nervous system achieve microsecond-scale phase precision given noisy individual spikes? Mechanism not fully specified here.