Temporal integration of pure tones in the cat.

A behavioral method for assessing auditory threshold in cats using food reward conditioning is described. The method requires that the cat press its nose against a touch panel in order to receive a stimulus and that it remove its nose when the stimulus is detected. Behavioral thresholds for pure tone stimuli of various durations are described for three laboratory-raised cats. For all frequencies tested, detection threshold varies as an exponential function of stimulus duration. For frequencies from 125 Hz to 8 kHz, integration time constant and stimulus frequency are inversely related. Response latencies are also affected by the duration of the stimulus. Results are considered in the light of similar measures obtained from human subjects.