Inhibition sensitive to interaural time difference in the barn owl's inferior colliculus.

In spontaneously active neurons in the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus of the barn owl, a stimulus-driven discharge was followed by a quiescent period lasting tens of milliseconds before the spontaneous activity resumed. The more favorable the interaural time difference, the longer the quiet period. The duration of the quiescent period also depended on stimulus frequency. Frequencies different from the neuron's best frequency induced shorter quiescent periods, although they could elicit similar rates of impulses. Also, the duration of the quiescent period was independent of interaural intensity difference. Thus, the quiet period is not due to an after-hyperpolarization but was an inhibitory effect that depended on the activity of other neurons. In some neurons, discharge continued after the stimulus without a quiescent period and gradually decayed over a period of 50-100 ms past the stimulus offset. The similarity between the quiescent period of the neurons mentioned above and the time course of the poststimulus discharge in these neurons suggests that these neurons serve as inhibitory interneurons.