Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

Hebbian learning in the MSO: emergence of interaural tuning

To localize sounds in the environment, animals mostly use spectro-temporal cues originating from the physical disparities of the sound waveforms impacting the ears. Among those, the Interaural Time Difference (ITD) has been shown to be crucial in mammals for locating low-frequency sounds, and is known to be processed by neurons in a particular structure, the Medial Superior Olive (MSO). While it is classically considered that the emergence of ITD selectivity in a neuron of the MSO is due to differences in the axonal delays originating from the two ears and impinging the cell (the so called “delay-line” model [1]), experimental evidence shows that the best delay (the ITD at which the neuron’s firing rate is maximum) is also dependent on the frequency of the sound [2].

Because such an observation is a challenge to the classical model, we want to investigate the emergence of binaural tuning in the MSO through Hebbian learning, similarly to what has already been done in [3]. To do so, we built a realistic neuronal architecture based on spiking neurons and using homeostatic and spike-timing dependent plasticity rules for synapses from cochlear nucleus projections to neurons in the MSO. By training the system with binaural sounds, we were able to study the development of ITD selectivity for various inputs and to understand why, and how, this ITD selectivity can depend on the frequency of the sound.

Finally, we will discuss, from a coding point of view, the potential implications raised by the frequency dependence of the best delay. As pointed out by recent work [4], with such a frequency-dependent best delay, neurons in the MSO should be seen as coding for a particular position in space, rather than for just a fixed delay difference.

References

  1. Jeffress LA: A place theory of sound localization. J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 1948, 41: 35-39.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Joris P, Yin TC: A matter of time: internal delays in binaural processing. Trends Neurosci. 2007, 30 (2): 70-8. 10.1016/j.tins.2006.12.004.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Fontaine B, Brette R: Neural Development of Binaural Tuning through Hebbian Learning Predicts Frequency-Dependent Best Delays. J. Neurosci. 2011, 31 (32): 11692-11696. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0237-11.2011.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Benichoux V, Fontaine B, Karino S, Joris P, Brette R: Frequency-dependent time differences between the ears are matched in neural tuning. (submitted)

Download references

Acknowledgment

This work is funded with a Fellowship Grant from the French FRM (Foundation for Medical Research), and the European Research Council (StG 240132).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P Yger.

Rights and permissions

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yger, P., Benichoux, V., Stimberg, M. et al. Hebbian learning in the MSO: emergence of interaural tuning. BMC Neurosci 15 (Suppl 1), P198 (2014). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1471-2202-15-S1-P198

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1471-2202-15-S1-P198

Keywords