Central auditory conduction time in the rat.

Central conduction time is the time for an afferent volley to traverse the central pathways of a sensory system. In the present study, central auditory conduction time (CACT) was calculated for the rat, the first such formal measurement in any animal. Brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) were recorded simultaneously with the primary response of the auditory cortex (P1). The latency of wave II of the BAEP, which arises in the cochlear nucleus, was subtracted from that of P1. This yielded a mean CACT of 6.6 ms. The results confirm a previous theoretical estimate that CACT in the rat is at least twice as long as central somatosensory conduction time.