Morphometry of intracellularly labeled neurons of the auditory nerve: correlations with functional properties.

Single auditory-nerve fibers were injected with horseradish peroxidase after their tuning properties, characteristic frequencies, and spontaneous discharge rates were measured. From these functional properties virtually all other aspects of auditory-nerve response can be predicted. Labeled fibers were reconstructed from the point of peripheral termination on cochlear hair cells to the point at which they enter the cochlear nucleus. Several morphological properties were measured at the light-microscopic level, including axonal diameter, axonal length, internodal distances, cell-body area, and cell-body shape. All of these parameters were correlated, though some weakly, with characteristic frequency. However, only axonal diameter was correlated with spontaneous discharge rate.