spectral and temporal neurons (Robert Zatorre )


Subject: spectral and temporal neurons
From:    Robert Zatorre  <md37(at)MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Date:    Mon, 25 Sep 2000 14:22:35 -0400

Dear List, does anyone have an opinion on what influence the spectral/temporal tradeoff that applies to linear acoustic filters could have on the neuronal organization of the central auditory system? That is, we know that for a linear system, there is necessarily a reciprocal relation between bandwidth and temporal resolution. What we're wondering is whether this would impose limits on the response properties of cortical auditory neurons, which form part of a distributed and nonlinear system. In other words, can neurons have independent spectral/temporal response features, or might the tradeoff function impose at least an upper limit on how sharply tuned they could be across the two domains? If anybody knows of any data pertinent to this question, we would be especially interested. In order to avoid congestion of e-mail traffic due to enthusiastic discussions that arise from some questions posted to the list, please respond directly to us at: md37(at)musica.mcgill.ca We will post later a summary of the responses obtained. Thank you for your interest, Robert Zatorre and Pascal Belin -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Robert J. Zatorre, Ph.D. Montreal Neurological Institute 3801 University St. Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B4 phone: 1-514-398-8903 fax: 1-514-398-1338 e-mail: md37(at)musica.mcgill.ca web site: www.zlab.mcgill.ca


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