M. Zacksenhouse et al., EXCITATION EFFECTS ON LSO UNIT SUSTAINED RESPONSES - POINT PROCESS CHARACTERIZATION, Hearing research, 68(2), 1993, pp. 202-216
LSO units recover from a spike discharge in a characteristic way, mode
led by an intrinsic recovery function that is stimulus invariant up to
a scaling factor and a shifting constant. Data analysis shows that th
e effect of increasing excitatory stimulus level can be described by a
mplifying the intrinsic recovery function and by shifting it toward sh
orter intervals. The shifting process secondarily interacts with the a
bsolute deadtime to produce the response characteristics of the three
LSO unit types. Decreased excitation is clearly distinguished from inh
ibition, which affects the scaling, but not the time origin, of the re
covery. We conclude that both excitatory and inhibitory stimulus level
s are encoded in the timing of LSO unit discharges.