Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.

The auditory system must represent sounds with a wide range of statistical properties. One important property is the spectrotemporal contrast in the acoustic environment: the variation in sound pressure in each frequency band, relative to the mean pressure. We show that neurons in ferret auditory co...

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Hauptverfasser: Rabinowitz, N, Willmore, B, Schnupp, J, King, A
Format: Journal article
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2011
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author Rabinowitz, N
Willmore, B
Schnupp, J
King, A
author_facet Rabinowitz, N
Willmore, B
Schnupp, J
King, A
author_sort Rabinowitz, N
collection OXFORD
description The auditory system must represent sounds with a wide range of statistical properties. One important property is the spectrotemporal contrast in the acoustic environment: the variation in sound pressure in each frequency band, relative to the mean pressure. We show that neurons in ferret auditory cortex rescale their gain to partially compensate for the spectrotemporal contrast of recent stimulation. When contrast is low, neurons increase their gain, becoming more sensitive to small changes in the stimulus, although the effectiveness of contrast gain control is reduced at low mean levels. Gain is primarily determined by contrast near each neuron's preferred frequency, but there is also a contribution from contrast in more distant frequency bands. Neural responses are modulated by contrast over timescales of ∼100 ms. By using contrast gain control to expand or compress the representation of its inputs, the auditory system may be seeking an efficient coding of natural sounds.
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spelling oxford-uuid:d6a7b3b7-5c52-42be-aee9-6b6e8e0533e22022-03-27T08:35:07ZContrast gain control in auditory cortex.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:d6a7b3b7-5c52-42be-aee9-6b6e8e0533e2EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2011Rabinowitz, NWillmore, BSchnupp, JKing, AThe auditory system must represent sounds with a wide range of statistical properties. One important property is the spectrotemporal contrast in the acoustic environment: the variation in sound pressure in each frequency band, relative to the mean pressure. We show that neurons in ferret auditory cortex rescale their gain to partially compensate for the spectrotemporal contrast of recent stimulation. When contrast is low, neurons increase their gain, becoming more sensitive to small changes in the stimulus, although the effectiveness of contrast gain control is reduced at low mean levels. Gain is primarily determined by contrast near each neuron's preferred frequency, but there is also a contribution from contrast in more distant frequency bands. Neural responses are modulated by contrast over timescales of ∼100 ms. By using contrast gain control to expand or compress the representation of its inputs, the auditory system may be seeking an efficient coding of natural sounds.
spellingShingle Rabinowitz, N
Willmore, B
Schnupp, J
King, A
Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.
title Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.
title_full Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.
title_fullStr Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.
title_full_unstemmed Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.
title_short Contrast gain control in auditory cortex.
title_sort contrast gain control in auditory cortex
work_keys_str_mv AT rabinowitzn contrastgaincontrolinauditorycortex
AT willmoreb contrastgaincontrolinauditorycortex
AT schnuppj contrastgaincontrolinauditorycortex
AT kinga contrastgaincontrolinauditorycortex