Responses of primary auditory fibers to brief tone bursts.

Responses of primary auditory fibers to short triangularly modulated bursts of tone were obtained in the anesthetized cat. Based on discharge rate alone, the characteristics of the "response areas" obtained with these tone bursts were found to depend on the best frequency of the fiber. For a fiber with low best frequency (below 1 kHz), tones of greater than 10-ms duration had to be presented in order for the frequency resolution of the neuron to be as good as it was for long tones. For fibers with high best frequencies (above 10 kHz), tones of 2 or even 1 ms caused responses that were nearly as frequency selective as those obtained with long tones. A linear minimum-phase model based on the steady-state frequency selectivity of the fibers has been developed and shows generally comparable responses, but with some interesting exceptions. Synchronization of discharges to the waveform of the low-frequency tone bursts was measured and also shown to be generally compatible with the minimum-phase model. Trapezoidally modulated tone bursts were also used.