Vowel representations in the ventral cochlear nucleus of the cat: effects of level, background noise, and behavioral state.

Single-unit responses were studied in the ventral cochlear nucleus (VCN) of cats as formant and trough features of the vowel /epsilon/ were shifted in the frequency domain to each unit's best frequency (BF; the frequency of greatest sensitivity). Discharge rates sampled with this spectrum manipulation procedure (SMP) were used to estimate vowel representations provided by populations of VCN neurons. In traditional population measures, a good representation of a vowel's formant structure is based on relatively high discharge rates among units with BFs near high-energy formant features and low rates for units with BFs near low-energy spectral troughs. At most vowel levels and in the presence of background noise, chopper units exhibited formant-to-trough rate differences that were larger than VCN primary-like units and auditory-nerve fibers. By contrast, vowel encoding by primary-like units resembled auditory nerve representations for most stimulus conditions. As is seen in the auditory nerve, primary-like units with low spontaneous rates (SR <18 spikes/s) produced better representations than high SR primary-like units at all but the lowest vowel levels. Awake cats exhibited the same general response properties as anesthetized cats but larger between-subject differences in vowel driven rates. The vowel encoding properties of VCN chopper units support previous interpretations that patterns of auditory nerve convergence on cochlear nucleus neurons compensate for limitations in the dynamic range of peripheral neurons.