NEUR 0010 - Chapter 11 Flashcards
What is the outer ear?
Pinna and auditory canal
What is the middle ear?
TM and ossicles
What is the inner ear?
Oval window and structures medial to it; cochlea
What is the thalamic relay center for audition (like the LGN)?
MGN
Where is the primary auditory cortex located?
Temporal lobe
What is the Eustachian tube?
Usually closed; descends from the ossicles in the middle ear; continuous with nasal cavity
Why is it a “problem” that the cochlea is fluid-filled?
Fluid is harder to move by sound waves; needs the ossicles to amplify things
What is the attenuation reflex of the ear?
At the onset of loud sound, muscles attached to ossicles make their movement more rigid, diminishing sound conduction and preventing damage
What frequencies is sound attenuation greatest at?
Low frequencies; not high frequencies
Why is attenuation good for speech recognition?
“picks out” the high-frequencies speech out of low-frequency noise
What happens when auditory spiral ganglion enter the brainstem?
Enter the brainstem via auditory-vestibular nerve; enter the medulla’s dorsal and ventral cochlear nuclei, ipsilateral to where they originated (branches to reach both), then goes through multiple parallel pathways
What happens when cells in the ventral cochlear nucleus project their axons to the superior olive of the brainstem?
Axons of superior olivary neurons project to the lateral lemniscus, then to the inferior colliculus in the midbrain
How does the dorsal cochlear nucleus’s projections to the inferior colliculus differ from the ventral cochlear nucleus’s?
Bypasses the superior olive
Where do all ascending auditory pathways converge?
Inferior colliculus
Where do auditory neurons in the inferior colliculus project their axons to?
The MGN in the temporal lobe, and then to auditory cortex
What is different about cochlear nucleus input from the rest of the other auditory nuclei in the brain stem?
Cochlear nuclei receive input from ipsilateral ear only; other brain stem auditory nuclei receive input from both ears
What is the only way brain stem damage can produce deafness in one ear only?
Damage to the cochlear nuclei
Why do most spiral ganglion cells respond to sound in a limited frequency range?
Because they receive input from only one inner hair cell and so fire APs only when that specific portion of the basilar membrane vibrates
What is characteristic frequency?
The one frequency at which an auditory neuron is most sensitive
What are the two ways sound intensity is encoded?
Firing rates of neurons, number of active neurons
What happens to the basilar membrane vibrations as sound intensity increases?
Greater amplitude of vibrations: causes membrane potential to be more de/hyper polarized, greater rate of AP firing; Greater distance of vibrations: activation of more hair cells, so broader frequency range for responses
What is tonotopy?
Systematic organization of characteristic frequency within an auditory structure
What part of the basilar membrane is more sensitive to high frequency vs low?
High at base, low at apex
What is phase locking?
The consistent firing of a cell at the same phase of a sound wave; fires APs at either peaks/troughs/etc. of the wave