Responses of inferior colliculus neurons to double harmonic tones.

The auditory system can segregate sounds that overlap in time and frequency, if the sounds differ in acoustic properties such as fundamental frequency (f0). However, the neural mechanisms that underlie this ability are poorly understood. Responses of neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of the anesthetized chinchilla were measured. The stimuli were harmonic tones, presented alone (single harmonic tones) and in the presence of a second harmonic tone with a different f0 (double harmonic tones). Responses to single harmonic tones exhibited no stimulus-related temporal pattern, or in some cases, a simple envelope modulated at f0. Responses to double harmonic tones exhibited complex slowly modulated discharge patterns. The discharge pattern varied with the difference in f0 and with characteristic frequency. The discharge pattern also varied with the relative levels of the two tones; complex temporal patterns were observed when levels were equal, but as the level difference increased, the discharge pattern reverted to that associated with single harmonic tones. The results indicated that IC neurons convey information about simultaneous sounds in their temporal discharge patterns and that the patterns are produced by interactions between adjacent components in the spectrum. The representation is "low-resolution," in that it does not convey information about single resolved components from either individual sound.