Responses of inferior collicular neurones of bats to tone bursts with different rise times.

1. A study was made of the responses of single neurones in the inferior colliculus of bats to tone bursts with different rise times (or with different rates of amplitude increase) in order to determine whether the neurones were specialized for analysis of amplitude-modulated sound, especially the rising phase in amplitude.2. The response patterns of neurones which showed phasic on-responses usually did not change with rise time, although the response patterns of some neurones changed from phasic on-responses to inhibitory responses.3. The thresholds of responses to tone bursts increased when the rise time was lengthened. The amount of increase greatly differed from neurone to neurone. For the excitation of neurones which showed a large increase in threshold, the stimulus amplitude should quickly increase in amplitude. For tone bursts with a short rise time, some neurones showed an upper-threshold above which the sounds failed to excite them. The upper-threshold usually disappeared when the rise time was lengthened. For the excitation of neurones which showed an upper-threshold, the rate of amplitude increase and its extent were very important parameters.4. Lengthening the rise time of a tone burst from 0.5 to 98 msec caused various types of change in the excitatory area. In some cases, there was a diminution of the area and, in others, there was an expansion of the area. Neurones showing these changes may be considered to be specialized for responding to tone bursts with either a rapid or slow increase in amplitude.5. Changes with rise time occurred not only in the excitatory area, but also in the inhibitory area. The change in the inhibitory area of a given neurone, however, was not necessarily the same as that in the excitatory area.6. The latency of response usually changed as a function of stimulus amplitude and rise time. In 26% of the neurones studied, however, the latency was relatively constant regardless of stimulus amplitude and rise time. Some of the latency-constant neurones appeared to have properties suited for echo-ranging.7. The changes in excitatory area with rise time appear to involve neural inhibition and/or accommodation. Possible neural mechanisms for the changes in threshold, upper-threshold and response pattern and the properties of latency-constant neurones are discussed.