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PubMed1998

Modulation detection interference in cochlear implant subjects.

The aim of this study was to determine whether detection thresholds for amplitude modulated signals on a single electrode were influenced by a masking modulation on a second electrode in cochlear implant users. Data were collected from four post-linguistically deafened subjects using the Cochlear Limited prosthesis. Investigated were the effects of the spatial separation between test and masker electrodes, 0 to 5 electrodes (0 to 3.75 mm), and the amount of masking modulation: 24%, 48%, 72%, and 96% above detection thresholds. Initially, modulation detection thresholds for stimulation on a single electrode without masking modulation were obtained for a set of six electrodes in the middle of the array. Modulation detection thresholds on a fixed test electrode were then obtained with unmodulated and modulated masking on a second electrode, which was one of the six electrodes in the initial study. In both studies, thresholds were measured for modulated pulse duration at the modulation frequencies of 10-200 Hz. In the first study, the shape of the detection thresholds as a function of modulation frequency, the temporal modulation transfer function, generally resembled a low-pass filter for two subjects. For the other two subjects, the functions were relatively flat across modulation frequencies. In the second study, unmodulated masking resulted in a small elevation in detection thresholds across electrodes. Modulation detection interference (MDI), the difference between thresholds for the modulated maskers and the unmodulated masker, was greater for larger amounts of masking modulation than for smaller amounts of masking modulation. For three of the four subjects, MDI was higher for smaller spatial separations between the two electrodes than for larger spatial separations suggesting that a portion of MDI may be due to overlap of neural excitation distributions produced by stimulation on two electrodes in close proximity on the array.

Auditory Threshold↗
PubMed1996

Activation of type-identified motor units during centrally evoked contractions in the cat medial gastrocnemius muscle. III. Muscle-unit force modulation.

1. The aim of this study was to examine the extent of muscle-unit force modulation due to motoneuron firing-rate variation in type-identified motor units of the cat medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle, and to investigate the contribution of muscle-unit force modulation to whole-muscle force regulation. The motoneuron discharge patterns recorded from 8 pairs of motor units during 12 smoothly graded muscle contractions evoked by stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) were used to reactivate those units in isolation to estimate what their force profiles would have been like during the evoked whole-muscle contractions. 2. For most motor units, muscle-unit force modulation was similar to motoneuron firing-rate modulation, in that muscle-unit force increased over a limited range (120-600 g) of increasing whole-muscle tension and was then maintained at a near maximal (> 70%) output level as muscle force continued to rise. Most muscle units also decreased their force outputs over a slightly larger range of declining whole-muscle force before relaxing. This second finding was best explained by the counterclockwise hysteresis recorded in the motor units' frequency-tension (f-t) relationships. 3. In those instances when whole-muscle force fluctuated just above the recruitment threshold of a motor unit, a substantial percentage (10-25%) of the change in whole-muscle force could be accounted for by force modulation in that motor unit alone. This finding suggested that few motor units in the pool were simultaneously simultaneously undergoing force modulation. To evaluate this possibility, the extent of parallel muscle-unit force modulation within the 8 pairs of simultaneously active motor units was evaluated. As with parallel motoneuron firing-rate modulation, the extent of parallel muscle-unit force modulation was limited to unit pairs of the same physiological type and recruitment threshold. In several instances, pairs of motor units displayed parallel motoneuron firing-rate modulation but did not show parallel muscle-unit force modulation because of the nature of the motor units' f-t relationships. 4. The limited extent of parallel muscle-unit force modulation seen in these experiments implies that the major strategy for force modulation in the cat MG muscle, involving contractions estimated to reach 30-40% of maximum, may be motor-unit recruitment rather than motor-unit firing-rate variation with resulting force modulation. Given, however, that the majority of motor units are already recruited at these output levels (< 40%), it is proposed that motor-unit firing-rate variation with resulting force modulation may take over as the major muscle force modulating strategy at higher output levels.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Formulation of Zeeman modulation as a signal filter.

The Bloch equation containing a Zeeman modulation field is solved analytically by treating the Zeeman modulation frequency as a perturbation. The absorption and dispersion signals at both 0 degrees and 90 degrees modulation phase are obtained. The solutions are valid to first order in the modulation frequency, but are otherwise valid for any value of modulation amplitude or microwave amplitude. A first order treatment of modulation frequency is shown to be a valid approximation over a wide range of typical experimental EPR conditions. The solutions derived from the Bloch equation suggest that the effect of over-modulation on first and second harmonic EPR spectra can be formulated as a mathematical filter that smoothes and broadens the under-modulated signal. The only adjustable filter parameter is a width that is equivalent to the applied peak-to-peak modulation amplitude. The true spin-spin and spin-lattice relaxation rates are completely determined from the under-modulated spectrum. The filters derived from the analytic solutions of the Bloch equation in the linear limit of modulation frequency are tested against numerical solutions of the Bloch equation that are valid for any modulation frequency to show their applicability. The filters are further tested using experimental EPR spectra. Experimental under-modulated spectra are mathematically filtered and compared with the experimental over-modulated spectra. The application of modulation filters to STEPR spectra is explored and limitations are discussed.

DNA↗
PubMed1998

The three-dimensional structure of a type I module from titin: a prototype of intracellular fibronectin type III domains.

BACKGROUND: Titin is a huge protein ( approximately 3 MDa) that is present in the contractile unit (sarcomere) of striated muscle and has a key role in muscle assembly and elasticity. Titin is mainly composed of two types of module (type I and II). Type I modules are found exclusively in the region of titin localised in the A band, where they are arranged in a super-repeat pattern that correlates with the ultrastructure of the thick filament. No structure of a titin type I module has been reported so far. RESULTS: We have determined the structure of a representative type I module, A71, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The structure has the predicted fibronectin type III fold. Titin-specific conserved residues are either located at the putative module-module interfaces or along one side of the protein surface. Several proline residues that contribute to two stretches in a polyproline II helix conformation are solvent-exposed and line up as a continuous ribbon extending over more than two-thirds of the module surface. Homology models of the type I module N-terminal to A71 (A70) and the double module A70-A71 were used to discuss possible intermodule interactions and their role in module-module orientation. CONCLUSIONS: As residues at the module-module interfaces are highly conserved, we speculate that similar interactions govern all of the interfaces between type I modules in titin. This conservation would lead to a regular multiple array of similar surface structures. Such an arrangement would allow arrays of contiguous type I modules to expose multiple proline stretches in a highly regular way and these may act as binding sites for other thick filament proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Structural and functional effects of pseudo-module substitution in hemoglobin subunits. New structural and functional units in globin structure.

Functional and structural significance of the "module" in proteins has been investigated for globin proteins. Our previous studies have revealed that some modules in globins are responsible for regulating the subunit association and heme environmental structures, whereas the module substitution often induces fatal structural destabilization, resulting in failure of functional regulation. In this paper, to gain further insight into functional and structural significance of the modular structure in globins, we focused upon the "pseudo-module" in globin structure where boundaries are located at the center of modules. Although the pseudo-module has been supposed not to retain a compactness, the betaalpha(PM3)-subunit, in which one of the pseudo-modules, the F1-H6 region, of the alpha-subunit is implanted into the beta-subunit, conserved stable globin structure, and its association property was converted into that of the alpha-subunit, as the case for the module substituted globin, the betaalpha(M4)-subunit. These results suggest that modules are not unique structural and functional units for globins. Interestingly, however, the recent reconsideration of the module boundary indicates that the modules in globins can be further divided into two small modules, and one of the boundaries for the new small modules coincides with that of the pseudo-module we substituted in this study. Although it would be premature to conclude the significance of the modular structure in globins, it can be safely said that we have found new structural units in globin structure, probably new modules.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

Modulation frequency and orientation tuning of second-order texture mechanisms.

Modulation frequency and orientation tuning of second-order mechanisms underlying the detection of modulation in local spatial-frequency information are assessed by using an oblique-masking paradigm. Stimuli were Gabor-filtered noise patterns in which the local carrier spatial frequency was modulated about an average value of 4.7 cycles per degree (cpd) according to sinusoidal function. Thresholds were determined for spatial-frequency modulated test patterns (0.2 and 0.8 cpd) with fixed vertical carrier and modulation orientations presented alone and in the presence of spatiotemporally superimposed masks. Mask modulation frequency (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, or 1.6 cpd), modulation orientation (0 degree, 45 degrees, or 90 degrees relative to vertical), and carrier orientation (18.5 degrees or 90 degrees relative to vertical) were manipulated independently while the mask modulation amplitude remained fixed at 0.25. Manipulating the modulation frequency of the mask revealed some modulation frequency specificity, particularly at lower test modulation frequencies. Spatial-frequency modulated masks produced threshold elevations regardless of the local carrier orientation. However, there was no evidence of threshold elevation when the mask modulation orientation was orthogonal to that of the test pattern. These results suggest a second-order texture mechanism that is tuned to both modulation frequency and modulation orientation but is not selective in terms of the orientation of first-order inputs.

Contrast Sensitivity↗
PubMed1999

Structural independence of ligand-binding modules five and six of the LDL receptor.

The low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) is the primary mechanism for the uptake of plasma cholesterol into cells and serves as a prototype for a growing family of cell surface receptors. These receptors all utilize tandemly repeated LDL-A modules to bind their ligands. Each LDL-A module is about 40 residues long, has six conserved cysteine residues, and contains a conserved acidic region near the C-terminus which serves as a calcium-binding site. The structure of the interface presented for ligand binding by these modules, and the basis for their specificity and affinity in ligand binding, is not yet known. We have purified recombinant molecules corresponding to LDL-A modules five (LR5), six (LR6), and the module five-six pair (LR5-6) of the LDL receptor. Calcium is required to establish native disulfide bonds and to maintain the structural integrity of LR5, LR6, and the LR5-6 module pair. Folding studies of the I189D and D206Y mutations within LR5 indicate that each change leads to misfolding of the module, explaining the previous observation that each of these changes mimics the functional effect of deletion of the entire module [Russell, D. W., Brown, M. S., and Goldstein, J. L. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 21682-21688]. By fluorescence, the affinity of LR5 for calcium, which is crucial for folding and function of these modules, remains approximately 40 nM whether LR6 is attached. Comparison of proton and multidimensional heteronuclear NMR spectra of individual modules to those of the module pair indicates that most of the significant spectroscopic changes lie within the linker region between modules and that little structural interaction occurs between the cores of modules five and six in the 5-6 pair. These findings strongly support a model in which each module is essentially structurally independent of the other.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2000

Physical and mechanical characteristics of a chlorine-substituted poly(para-xylylene) coating on orthodontic chain modules.

A 10 microm film of a chlorine-substituted poly(para-xylylene) was evaluated as a protective coating for commercial chain modules. Segments of modules were either non-coated or coated using five modes: 0%, 100%, and 200% elongation during coating and shipping; and 100% and 200% elongation only during coating. Prior to hydration, coating coverage was examined via light and electron microscopy. When hydrated, the presence or absence of the coating did not appreciably change the total weight gain (1.5%). However, when the modules were post-coating elongated to either 100% or 200%, neither the non-coated nor the coated modules sorbed water. Hydration did not significantly change the mechanical properties of the modules. As expected, most of the mechanical properties of the coated modules were greater than the properties for the uncoated modules. With regard to the coated modules only the properties of those modules having 0% elongation during coating and shipping were, in general, significantly different from the other coated modules. Post-coating elongation reduced the stiffness of the coated modules more than 79%. In regard to stress relaxation, the non-coated and coated modules recovered approximately 74% and 62% of the peak loading, respectively. Using the load-time data from these curves, Maxwell-Weichert models accurately predicted the decay profiles of both the non-coated and coated modules. Because the water sorption and the mechanical properties of these coated modules were favorable, they should be further characterized for staining.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

All six modules of the gelatin-binding domain of fibronectin are required for full affinity.

The gelatin-binding sites of fibronectin are confined to a 42-kDa region having four type I and two type II modules in the following order: I(6)-II(1)-II(2)-I(7)-I(8)-I(9). To determine the relative importance of each module for recognition of gelatin, recombinant green fluorescent fusion proteins were prepared in which individual modules or groups of modules were deleted, and the resulting proteins were tested for binding to gelatin by analytical affinity chromatography. Deletion of both type II modules did not eliminate binding, confirming that at least some of the type I modules in this region are able to bind gelatin. It was found that deletion of type I module 6 tends to increase the affinity, whereas deletion of any other module decreases it. Deletion of module I(9) had a large effect but only if module II(2) was also present, suggesting an interaction between these two noncontiguous modules. Analysis of more than 20 recombinant fusion products led to the conclusion that all modules contribute to the interaction either directly by contacting the ligand or indirectly through module-module interactions.

Animals↗
PubMed1968

Antigenic modulation. Loss of TL antigen from cells exposed to TL antibody. Study of the phenomenon in vitro.

Antigenic modulation (the loss of TL antigens from TL+ cells exposed to TL antibody in the absence of lytic complement) has been demonstrated in vitro. An ascites leukemia, phenotype TL.1,2,3, which modulates rapidly and completely when incubated with TL antiserum in vitro, was selected for further study of the phenomenon. Over a wide range of TL antibody concentrations modulation at 37 degrees C was detectable within 10 min and was complete within approximately 1 hr. The cells were initially sensitized to C' by their contact with antibody, thereafter losing this sensitivity to C' lysis together with their sensitivity to TL antibody and C' in the cytotoxic test. The capacity of the cells to undergo modulation was abolished by actinomycin D and by iodoacetamide, and by reducing the temperature of incubation to 0 degrees C. Thus modulation apparently is an active cellular process. Antigens TL. 1,2, and 3 are all modulated by anti-TL.1,3 serum and by anti-TL.3 serum. This modulation affects all three TL components together, even when antibody to one or two of them is lacking. aAnti-TL.2 serum does not induce modulation and in fact impairs modulation by the other TL antibodies. The influence of the TL phenotype of cells upon the demonstrable content of H-2 (D region) isoantigen, first shown in cells modulated in vivo, has been observed with cells modulated in vitro. Cells undergoing modulation show a progressive increase in H-2 (D region) antigen over a period of 4 hr, with no change in H-2 antigens of the K region. Restoration of the TL+ phenotype of modulated cells after removal of antibody is less rapid than TL+ --> TL- modulation and may require several cell divisions.

Amides↗
PubMed2003

Suprathreshold effects of adaptation produced by amplitude modulation.

This work extends the study of adaptation to amplitude modulation (AM) to the perception of highly detectable modulation. A fixed-level matching procedure was used to find perceptually equivalent modulation depths for 16-Hz modulation imposed on a 1-kHz standard and a 4-kHz comparison. The modulation depths in the two stimuli were compared before and after a 10-min exposure to a 1-kHz tone (adaptor) 100% modulated in amplitude at different rates. For modulation depths of 63% (20 log m = -4) and smaller, the perceived modulation depth was reduced after exposure to the adaptor that was modulated at the same rate as the standard. The size of this reduction expressed as a difference between the post- and pre-exposure AM depths was similar to the increase in AM-detection threshold observed after adaptation. Postexposure suprathreshold modulation depth was not appreciably reduced when the modulation depth of the standard was large (approached 100%). A much smaller or no reduction in the perceived modulation depth was also observed when the modulation rates of the adaptor and the standard tone were different. The tuning of the observed effect of the adaptor appears to be much sharper than the tuning shown by modulation-masking results.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1989

Spectrotemporal analysis and cochlear hearing impairment: effects of frequency selectivity, temporal resolution, signal frequency, and rate of modulation.

The detection of 500- or 2000-Hz pure-tone signals in unmodulated and modulated noise was investigated in normal-hearing and sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners, as a function of noise bandwidth. Square-wave modulation rates of 15 and 40 Hz were used in the modulated noise conditions. A notched noise measure of frequency selectivity and a gap detection measure of temporal resolution were also obtained on each subject. The modulated noise results indicated a masking release that increased as a function of increasing noise bandwidth, and as a function of decreasing modulation rate for both groups of listeners. However, the improvement of threshold with increasing modulated noise bandwidth was often greatly reduced among the sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners. It was hypothesized that the masking release in modulated noise may be due to several types of processes including across-critical band analysis (CMR), within-critical band analysis, and suppression. Within-band effects appeared to be especially large at the higher frequency region and lower modulation rate. In agreement with previous research, there was a significant correlation between frequency selectivity and masking release in modulated noise. At the 500-Hz region, masking release was correlated more highly with the filter skirt and tail measures than with the filter passband measure. At the 2000-Hz region, masking release was correlated more with the filter passband and skirt measures than with the filter tail measure. The correlation between gap detection and masking release was significant at the 40-Hz modulation rate, but not at the 15-Hz modulation rate. The results of this study suggest that masking release in modulated noise is limited by frequency selectivity at low modulation rates, and by both frequency selectivity and temporal resolution at high modulation rates. However, even when the present measures of frequency selectivity and temporal resolution are both taken into account, significant variance in masking release still remains unaccounted for.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1998

Detection of sinusoidal amplitude modulation at unexpected rates.

The detectability of sinusoidal amplitude modulation at unexpected modulation rates was assessed using a probe-signal method. With this method, three listeners were led to expect a target modulation rate (4, 32, or 256 Hz) by presenting the signal most often at that rate, and sensitivity to modulation at six other unexpected rates between 4 and 256 Hz was measured via occasionally presented probe modulation rates. The modulation phase was random on each two-interval forced-choice trial and the overall level of the 500-ms broadband carrier was randomly varied between 55 and 75 dB SPL across intervals. The modulation depth at each rate was set so that the modulation was detected on about 90% of the trials when only that rate was presented. Performance at the unexpected rates depended upon the target rate. For the 4-Hz target, modulation at all rates was detected on about 80% of the trials. For the 32- and 256-Hz targets, unexpected modulation rates of 16 Hz and above were detected on 80%-90% of the trials, but modulation rates below 16 Hz were detected nearly at chance. The influence of expectation of modulation rate on the detection of sinusoidal amplitude modulation is not readily predicted by current models of modulation detection.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Pleiotropic phenotypes caused by genetic ablation of the receiver module of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens VirA protein.

The VirA protein of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a transmembrane sensory kinase that phosphorylates the VirG response regulator in response to chemical signals released from plant wound sites. VirA contains both a two-component kinase module and, at its carboxyl terminus, a receiver module. We previously provided evidence that this receiver module inhibited the activity of the kinase module and that inhibition might be neutralized by phosphorylation. In this report, we provide additional evidence for this model by showing that overexpressing the receiver module in trans can restore low-level basal activity to a VirA mutant protein lacking the receiver module. We also show that ablation of the receiver module restores activity to the inactive VirA (delta324-413) mutant, which has a deletion within a region designated the linker module. This indicates that deletion of the linker module does not denature the kinase module, but rather locks the kinase into a phenotypically inactive conformation, and that this inactivity requires the receiver module. These data provide genetic evidence that the kinase and receiver modules of VirA attain their native conformations autonomously. The receiver module also restricts the variety of phenolic compounds that have stimulatory activity, since removal of this module causes otherwise nonstimulatory phenolic compounds such as 4-hydroxyacetophenone to stimulate vir gene expression.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens↗
PubMed1997

Erythrocyte sodium-lithium countertransport in non-modulating offspring and essential hypertensive individuals: response to enalapril.

Non-modulators are a subset of essential hypertensive individuals in whom renal hemodynamic and adrenal aldosterone responses to angiotensin II fail to modulate appropriately during high dietary salt intake. The main aim of this study was to investigate the familial aggregation of non-modulation and several erythrocyte Na+ transport systems in normotensive and hypertensive individuals as well as offspring of hypertensive parents. An additional aim was to evaluate the effect of treatment with enalapril on erythrocyte Na+ transport. We studied 15 normotensive subjects (6 males, 27+/-6 years), 14 untreated modulating essential hypertensive subjects (7 males, 38+/-7 years), 12 untreated non-modulating essential hypertensive subjects (7 males, 38+/-6 years), 14 modulating offspring of hypertensive parents (8 males, 25+/-6 years), and 14 non-modulating offspring of hypertensive parents (8 males, 26+/-4 years). Blood pressure was recorded with an oscillometric device and renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate by clearances of para-aminohippurate and inulin, respectively. Non-modulating subjects were identified as individuals who failed to increase effective renal plasma flow by 30% and decrease filtration fraction by at least 30% 10 days after changing from a low (20 mmol/d) to a high (250 mmol/d) sodium intake. Erythrocyte Na+ transport was characterized by measurements of the Na+-K+ pump, Na+-Li+ countertransport, Na+-K+-Cl- cotransport, passive Na+ permeability, and Na+ content. After the initial studies, hypertensive individuals were treated with enalapril (20 mg/d P.O.) for 6 months, after which erythrocyte Na+ transport measurements were again made. The main findings were that Na+-Li+ countertransport is increased in non-modulating hypertensive subjects and non-modulating offspring of hypertensive parents, that the increase in blood pressure in response to high salt intake is greater in non-modulating than modulating hypertensive subjects, and that enalapril decreases Na+-Li+ countertransport activity to normal in non-modulating hypertensive subjects. These findings provide support for a possible genetic role in the development of salt sensitivity and suggest that Na+-Li+ countertransport and non-modulation are related phenotypes.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Localization of hydrogen-bonds within modules in barnase.

Proteins in eukaryotes are composed of structural units, each encoded by discrete exons. The protein module is one such structural unit; it has been defined as the least extended or the most compact contiguous segment in a globular domain. To elucidate roles of modules in protein evolution and folding, we examined roles of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic cores, as related to the stability of these modules. For this purpose we studied barnase, a bacterial RNase from Bacillus amylolique-faciens. Barnase is decomposed into at least six modules, M1-M6; the module boundaries are identified at amino acid residues 24, 52, 73, 88, and 98. Hydrogen bonds are localized mainly within each of the modules, with only a few between them, thereby indicating that their locations are designed to primarily stabilize each individual module. To obtain support for this notion, an analysis was made of hypothetical modules defined as segments starting at a center of one module and ending at the center of the following one. We found that the hydrogen bonds did not localize in each hypothetical module and that many formed between the hypothetical modules. The native conformations of modules of barnase may be specified predominantly by interactions within the modules.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1985

Delineation of FM rate channels in man by detectability of a three-component modulation waveform.

Adaptation studies have provided evidence for auditory mechanisms which operate on the modulation waveform of frequency-modulated sounds, and that these mechanisms behave like a series of channels selectively tuned to a limited range of modulation rates. In the present experiments, measurements of the modulation detectability threshold of a frequency-modulated tone, which had a modulation waveform spectrum consisting of three components: one component at the modulation rate and two sidebands which could be set to different frequency positions on either side of it, revealed that when the two sidebands were located within a limited bandwidth around the central component they contributed to the detection of the modulation. However, when the sidebands were more widely separated from the central component, the modulation detection threshold was dependent only on the magnitude of the central component. Within the area of sideband interaction, there was an inversely proportional relationship between the magnitude of the sidebands and the modulation threshold. Differences in the time-integrated sound spectra for the FM signals, although very complex, do not contain changes which adequately explain the data on the basis of critical band mechanisms, or a peak-to-peak detection model. The data provide further evidence in support of the hypothesis derived from adaptation studies that channels selectively sensitive to the rate of frequency modulation in frequency-modulated tones are concerned in the processing of frequency-modulated signals.

Auditory Threshold↗
PubMed1994

Neural encoding of amplitude modulation within the auditory midbrain of squirrel monkeys.

The neuronal responses to amplitude modulated (AM) sounds were investigated in the auditory midbrain of the squirrel monkey. Sinusoidally modulated tones and noise served as acoustic stimuli. In order to describe the response properties of collicular neurons, Fast-Fourier-Transformation (FFT), a cross-correlation algorithm and spike-rate counts were applied to translate the neuronal reactions into modulation transfer functions. FFT and cross-correlation defined a measure for synchronicity of the neuronal discharges with the modulation cycles. All neurons (542) responded selectively to AM-sounds insofar as all displayed a best modulation frequency (BMF). Most of them furthermore had a band-pass-like modulation transfer function, whose center frequencies were mainly between 8 and 128 Hz. Transfer functions obtained by spike-rate showed less selectivity: a relatively great number of neurons did not change their spike rate as a function of modulation frequency. The results show that encoding of amplitude-modulated sounds occurs to a greater extent via phase locking of discharges than via changes in spike number. In the same way, changing modulation depth is processed: whereas spike rate on average remains constant between 100% and 0% modulation, there is a drastic reduction in synchronicity. No clear relationship was found between a unit's characteristic frequency and BMF; the same applied to BMF and recording place. The results furthermore show that amplitude modulations are encoded selectively in a band pass function in a non-human primate. The midbrain thereby occupies an intermediate position within the pathway from the periphery to the cortex. This form of temporal resolution probably underlies mechanisms caused by the increasing synaptic activity in the course of the pathway. This may indicate adaptation since those modulation frequencies embedded in this species' vocal repertoire fit quite well with the system's tuning properties for amplitude modulation.

Acoustic Stimulation↗