Spectral and temporal response patterns of single units in the chinchilla dorsal cochlear nucleus

Spectral and temporal response patterns to pure-tone stimuli were collected from single units in the dorsal cochlear nucleus of anesthetized chinchillas. The spectral response profiles were divisible into groups based on the balance of excitation and inhibition. Temporal responses were characterized in chloralose-anesthetized animals by collecting PST-histograms. There appeared to be no simple one-to-one relationship between a unit's spectral and its temporal response pattern. Excitatory spectral responses were generally sharply tuned areas resembling those of auditory nerve fibers. However, unlike the latter, the majority of these had chopper or pauser/buildup temporal responses. Inhibitory spectral responses were of two distinct types: one included lateral inhibitory areas flanking the tuned excitatory areas which occasionally invaded the latter creating a nonmonotonic excitatory response at the unit's characteristic frequency. The other included sharply tuned inhibitory areas. The characteristic frequencies of these units were found to be in close correspondence with those of sharply tuned excitatory units from the same penetration suggesting that these inhibitory units were tonotopically mapped in the same register as tuned excitatory units. The spectral response patterns were studied with three types of anesthesia: ketamine/xylazine, dial/urethane, and chloralose. In each of these groups the patterns were similar. However, the proportions of units showing inhibition was strongly dependent on the choice of anesthetic agent with chloralose yielding the highest proportions (59%) and ketamine/xylazine yielding the lowest (29%).