Kettner R E, Thompson R F
J Acoust Soc Am. 1985 Jun;77(6):2111-27. doi: 10.1121/1.391736.
Rabbits were conditioned to respond behaviorally to auditory stimuli by pairing a white-noise conditioned stimulus (CS) with a corneal airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US). The conditioned response (CR) was movement of the nictitating membrane (NM). After the subjects were responding at better than the 90% correct level, the intensity of the auditory stimulus was reduced to behavioral threshold using a staircase procedure. Simultaneous measurements of neural unit activity and behavioral NM responses were then made in rabbits performing at behavioral threshold. After the experiment was completed neural unit responses during behavioral detection trials were compared to neural responses made during nondetection trials. Neural unit responses to a constant intensity, white-noise stimulus at behavioral threshold were well defined and essentially identical on behavioral detection and nondetection trials in the ventral cochlear nucleus, the ventrolateral division of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus, and the ventral division of the medial geniculate body. This suggests that an auditory stimulus can be neuronally "detected" without being behaviorally detected, and that the neural "decision" to respond behaviorally is not made in these nuclei. Responses recorded from the dorsomedial division of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus, the pericentral nucleus of the inferior colliculus, and less commonly in the medial division of the medial geniculate body were also clearly present and nearly identical during the onset of the auditory stimulus, but were sometimes consistently different for detection and nondetection conditions during the latter part of the auditory stimulus. These brain regions appear to receive both auditory and nonauditory inputs, and show responses which are more highly correlated with detection behavior.
通过将白噪声条件刺激（CS）与角膜吹气非条件刺激（US）配对，使兔子对听觉刺激产生行为反应。条件反应（CR）是瞬膜（NM）的运动。在受试者的反应正确率超过90%后，使用阶梯程序将听觉刺激的强度降低到行为阈值。然后在处于行为阈值的兔子中同时测量神经单元活动和行为性瞬膜反应。实验完成后，将行为检测试验期间的神经单元反应与非检测试验期间的神经反应进行比较。在行为阈值下，对恒定强度的白噪声刺激的神经单元反应在腹侧耳蜗核、下丘中央核的腹外侧部以及内侧膝状体的腹侧部的行为检测和非检测试验中都得到了很好的定义，并且基本相同。这表明听觉刺激可以在神经层面被“检测”到而无需在行为层面被检测到，并且在这些核团中并未做出行为反应的神经“决策”。在下丘中央核的背内侧部、下丘的中央周核以及较少见的内侧膝状体的内侧部记录到的反应在听觉刺激开始时也明显存在且几乎相同，但在听觉刺激后期，有时在检测和非检测条件下会持续不同。这些脑区似乎接收听觉和非听觉输入，并表现出与检测行为更高度相关的反应。
