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Rate fluctuations and fractional power-law noise recorded from cells in the lower auditory pathway of the cat.

The noise properties of the sequence of action potentials recorded from adult-cat auditory nerve fibers and lateral superior olivary units have been investigated under various stimulus conditions. Large fluctuations exhibited by the spike rate, and spike clusters evident in the pulse-number distribution, both indicate an unusual underlying sequence of neural events. We present results demonstrating that (i) the firing rate calculated with different averaging times can exhibit self-similar behavior; (ii) the pulse-number distribution remains irregular even for large numbers of samples; (iii) the spike-number variance-to-mean ratio increases with the counting time T in fractional power-law fashion for sufficiently large T; and (iv) the exponent in the power law generally depends on the stimulus level. The results obtained in our laboratories support the notion that all auditory-nerve and LSO units exhibit fractal neural firing patterns, as indicated earlier by Teich (IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 36, 150-160, 1989).

Action Potentials

[Damages of the auditory pathway at brain stem level investigated by acoustically evoked potentials (author's transl)].

In 57 patients with operated expansive tumors in the postcranial fossa auditory evoked brain stem potentials were investigated. A group of 36 with neurological evidence for the brain stem compression showed significantly prolonged latencies (Fig. 1), whereas the evoked potentials were nearly normal in the preceding state of CSF circulatory disturbances (21 cases). For one patient with a neurinoma of the right trigeminal root the post-operative reduction of the pathological latency shift is demonstrated (Fig. 2). Latency evaluation of evoked brain stem potentials are used in our clinical routine for differential diagnosis of retrocochlear hearing damages.

Acoustic Stimulation

Some forms of tinnitus may involve the extralemniscal auditory pathway.

It has previously been shown that the click-evoked responses recorded from the intracranial portion of the eighth nerve in patients with incapacitating tinnitus are not abnormal, nor is the latency of peak III of the click-evoked brainstem auditory-evoked potentials significantly altered; however, the latency of peak V is slightly (but significantly) shortened in comparison to that of patients with the same degree of hearing loss but no tinnitus. In this study the hypothesis that the extralemniscal auditory system is involved in the generation of tinnitus is tested. We made use of the fact that neurons of the extralemniscal auditory system also receive input from the somatosensory system, and that stimulation of the somatosensory system can influence the processing of auditory information in the extralemniscal system. In 4 of 26 patients with mild-to-severe tinnitus whose median nerve was stimulated electrically, the tinnitus increased noticeably during stimulation, in 6 the intensity of the tinnitus decreased noticeably, and in the remaining 16 there was no noticeable change in the tinnitus. In some of the patients the character of the tinnitus changed in a complex way. There were no significant differences in hearing thresholds in these three groups of patients. Electrical stimulation of the median nerve in 12 individuals with normal hearing who did not have tinnitus either had no effect on the loudness of sounds or it caused a slight increase in the loudness.

Auditory Pathways

Auditory pathways to the frontal cortex of the mustache bat, Pteronotus parnellii.

In primates, certain areas of the frontal cortex play a role in guiding movements toward visual or auditory objects in space. The projections from auditory centers to the frontal cortex of the bat Pteronotus parnellii were examined because echolocating bats utilize auditory cues to guide their movements in space. An area in the frontal cortex receives a direct projection from a division of the auditory thalamus, the suprageniculate nucleus, which in turn receives input from the anterolateral peri-olivary nucleus, an auditory center in the medulla. This pathway to the frontal cortex bypasses the main auditory centers in the midbrain and cortex and could involve as few as four neurons between the cochlea and the frontal cortex. The auditory cortex is also a major source of input to the frontal cortex. This area of the frontal cortex may link the auditory and motor systems by its projections to the superior colliculus.

Animals