For localization of a sound source, animals and humans process the microsecond interaural time differences of arriving sound waves. How nervous systems, consisting of elements with time constants of about and more than 1 ms, can reach such high precision is still an open question. This model shows that population of 10000 slowly integrating Hodgkin-Huxley neurons with inhibitory and excitatory inputs (EI neurons) can detect minute temporal disparities in input signals which are significantly less than any time constant in the system.
Model Type: Realistic Network
Region(s) or Organism(s): Auditory brainstem
Cell Type(s): Hodgkin-Huxley neuron
Model Concept(s): Audition
Simulation Environment: NEURON
Implementer(s): Tikidji-Hamburyan, Ruben [ruben.tikidji.hamburyan at gmail.com] ; Vasilkov, Viacheslav [vasilkov.va at gmail.com]
References:
Vasilkov VA, Tikidji-Hamburyan RA. (2012). Accurate detection of interaural time differences by a population of slowly integrating neurons. Physical review letters. 108 [PubMed]