Signal integration at spherical bushy cells enhances representation of temporal structure but limits its range

What is it about?

In many parts of the brain that process sensory information such as vision and hearing, precise control of the nerve cells' activity is crucial in processing the sensory stimulus. Specialized cells in the auditory system, called bushy cells, are critical in encoding sounds and processing this information to other brain areas. We recently found that the interplay of activating (excitatory) and suppressing (inhibitory) activity at bushy cells is crucial for hearing using artificial sounds. In this study, we extended on these findings and used environmental sounds. For these, the interplay between excitatory and inhibitory activity is even more critical than previously thought. While it helps the bushy cells to show immaculate timing in its response, it makes them less accurate in representing all the dynamics of the sound stimulus. This mechanism might be relevant to extract timing information with high fidelity which is crucial for localizing sounds sources in space.

Featured Image