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Modulation of cochlear hair cells by the auditory cortex in the mustached bat

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 57–63 (2002)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 February 2002

Abstract

The corticofugal (descending) auditory system forms multiple feedback loops, and adjusts and improves auditory signal processing in the subcortical auditory nuclei. However, the mechanism by which the corticofugal system modulates cochlear hair cells has been unexplored. We found that electric stimulation of cortical neurons via the corticofugal system modulates cochlear hair cells in a highly specific way according to the relationship in terms of best frequency between cortical neurons and hair cells. Such frequency-specific effects can be explained by selective corticofugal modulation of individual olivocochlear efferent fibers.

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Figure 1: Cortical over-representation of and sharply tuned hair cell responses to a 61 kHz sound.
Figure 2: Corticofugal modulation of cochlear microphonic (CM) responses.
Figure 3: Corticofugal modulation of cochlear microphonic responses.
Figure 4: Distribution of cortical Doppler-shifted constant frequency (DSCF) neurons that evoked either centrifugal or centripetal best frequency (BF) shift of the cochlear microphonic potential (CM).
Figure 5: Effect of cortical inactivation on frequency tuning of cochlear microphonic response.

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Acknowledgements

We thank O.W. Henson, S. Kuwada, N. Laleman and M.C. Liberman for their comments, the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources in Trinidad and Tobago for permitting us to collect the mustached bats, and F. Muradali for exporting them to the USA. This work was supported by a research grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders (DC-00175).

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  1. Department of Biology, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, 63130, Missouri, USA

    Zhongju Xiao & Nobuo Suga

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Correspondence to Nobuo Suga.

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Xiao, Z., Suga, N. Modulation of cochlear hair cells by the auditory cortex in the mustached bat. Nat Neurosci 5, 57–63 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn786

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