Auditory signal detection and decision processes in the nervous system.

Neuronal unit activity was recorded from auditory nuclei, and dorsal hippocampus, and the cerebellum in rabbits behaviorally detecting a threshold-level constant intensity white noise stimulus. Stimulus-evoked neuronal unit activity was present and identical on both detection and nondetection trials in auditory nuclei but was dichotomous in the hippocampus and in the cerebellum, the latter two systems predicting the occurrence of behavioral detection. It is concluded that the behavioral absolute auditory threshold is not determined by differential activation of neurons in the primary auditory relay nuclei.