Verschooten Eric, Joris Philip X
Laboratory of Auditory Neurophysiology, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49 bus 1021, 3000, Leuven, Belgium,
J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2014 Oct;15(5):767-87. doi: 10.1007/s10162-014-0465-9. Epub 2014 Jun 3.
The frequency extent over which fine structure is coded in the auditory nerve has been physiologically characterized in laboratory animals but is unknown in humans. Knowledge of the upper frequency limit in humans would inform the debate regarding the role of fine structure in human hearing. Of the presently available techniques, only the recording of mass neural potentials offers the promise to provide a physiological estimate of neural phase locking in humans. A challenge is to disambiguate neural phase locking from the receptor potentials. We studied mass potentials recorded on the cochlea and auditory nerve of cat and used several experimental manipulations to isolate the neural contribution to these potentials. We find a surprisingly large neural contribution in the signal recorded on the cochlear round window, and this contribution is in many aspects similar to the potential measured on the auditory nerve. The results suggest that recording of mass potentials through the middle ear is a promising approach to examine neural phase locking in humans.
在实验动物中，听觉神经编码精细结构的频率范围已在生理学上得到了表征，但在人类中尚不清楚。了解人类的高频上限将为有关精细结构在人类听力中作用的争论提供依据。在目前可用的技术中，只有记录群体神经电位有望提供人类神经锁相的生理学估计。一个挑战是将神经锁相与感受器电位区分开来。我们研究了在猫的耳蜗和听觉神经上记录的群体电位，并使用了几种实验操作来分离神经对这些电位的贡献。我们发现在耳蜗圆窗记录的信号中，神经贡献惊人地大，而且这种贡献在许多方面与在听觉神经上测量的电位相似。结果表明，通过中耳记录群体电位是一种研究人类神经锁相的有前景的方法。
