Essential auditory contrast-sharpening is preneuronal.

Contrast-sharpening is a fundamental feature of mammalian sensory perception. Whereas visual contrast-sharpening has been fully understood in terms of the retinal neuronal wiring [DeVries, S. H. & Baylor, D. A. (1993) Cell 72, Suppl., 139-149], a corresponding explanation of auditory contrast-sharpening is still lacking. Here, we show that the essentials of auditory contrast-sharpening can be explained by using cochlear biophysics. This finding indicates that the phenomenon is basically of preneuronal origin.