Transmission delay of phase-locked cells in the medial geniculate body

Over 4000 single unit recordings were obtained from the medial geniculate body (MGB) of nitrous oxide anaesthetized cats. Out of 1600 cells sensitive to tone bursts below 4 kHz, 10% were responding in a sustained manner. From these, 121 were tested for phase-locked responses. The general characteristics of these units have been described in a previous report. The central tendency of the discharges distribution within the period or mean phase angle was studied for many frequencies in 24 phase-locked units. For each of them, the mean phase angle shifts linearly with the frequency. The slope of these phase versus frequency lines is an accurate measure of the transmission delay from the cochlea to the MGB. This delay is a function of the unit's characteristic frequency and shows that the time spread introduced by the cochlea between the high and low frequency components of an acoustic signal is preserved up to the MGB. Subtracting the cochlear delay from this overall delay, the neural delay from the eighth nerve to the MGB was found to be 6.4 ms for neurons having a CF above 300 Hz; it was greater by 3 ms for cells with a CF below that frequency.