Abstract
The neural encoding of so-called “biologically relevant” sounds has been one focus for the efforts of auditory neurophysiologists in recent years (e.g., Woorden and Galambos 1972). Studies on amphibians have shown that the peripheral auditory systems of these animals are highly specialized for the processing of species-specific vocalizations (Frishkopf, Capranica, and Goldstein 1968). Cells have been described in the auditory cortex of squirrel monkeys that respond only to a very limited set of the vocalizations produced by these species (Newman and Wollberg 1973); the responses of such cells to these vocalizations are not easily explained in terms of their response to “simple” stimuli such as tones. Similarly, Leppelsack and Vogt (1976) and Scheich, Langner, and Koch (1977) have found cells in the avian field L and nucleus magnocellularis lateralis pars dorsalis whose selective responsiveness to vocalizations are not easily explained in terms of a relationship between those single frequencies that excite the neuron and the spectral content of the vocalizations. Suga (1978) has described a neural organization in the auditory cortex of bats that is highly specialized for the echolocation functions of these animals. Knudsen and Konishi (1978) have also demonstrated an exquisite neural substrate of sound localizations in the MLD of the barn owl, Tyco alba. As a result of these various lines of research, it now appears that at least a portion of the auditory system is a hierarchically organized analyzing network in which is found a progressive degree of abstraction of the acoustic signal as one proceeds centrally along the auditory pathway (Bullock 1977, p. 300).
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Sachs, M.B., Woolf, N.K., Sinnott, J.M. (1980). Response Properties of Neurons in the Avian Auditory System: Comparisons with Mammalian Homologues and Consideration of the Neural Encoding of Complex Stimuli. In: Popper, A.N., Fay, R.R. (eds) Comparative Studies of Hearing in Vertebrates. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8074-0_11
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