Simulation of Excitatory/Inhibitory Interactions in Single Auditory Neurons

摘要

Characterization of the function of single neurons has become essential fordeveloping advanced nodes for massively parallel computational structures. The lateral superior olive (LSO) is a nucleus located early in the ascending auditory pathway. Anatomically, each LSO neuron receives input from both ears; this fact led researchers to hypothesize that the LSO is involved in binaural hearing. Recordings from this nucleus not only confirm that LSO neurons are responsive to sounds presented in either ear, but in a particularly interesting and simple way: sounds presented in one ear excite an LSO neuron (increase its discharge rate) while sounds present at the other ear inhibit the neuron (discharge rate decreases). This mode of operation-the interaction of excitatory an inhibitory inputs to produce neural output-is the fundamental mode of neural processing. Thus, modeling LSO neurons represents a particularly clear-cut opportunity to understand basic neural processing. The approach taken in this research is to create anatomical and biophysical models of single LSO neurons and demand that the discharge patterns thus produced statistically match single-neuron recordings. With this strategy, this project seeks to (1) understand the neural mechanisms that underly basic LSO response patterns (transient chopping response to tone bursts and serial interspike interval correlations), (2) understand the transformation of fractal inputs by the LSO neuron, and (3) characterize excitatory/inhibitory interactions.