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Short-term adaptation and incremental responses of single auditory-nerve fibers

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Abstract

In response to tone bursts of constant sound intensity, mammalian auditory-nerve fibers produce a maximum firing rate at onset, followed by an adaptation to a quasi-steady firing rate within about 150 msec. On the basis of two fundamental findings, it appears that the adaptation is additive, or linear, in nature and does not result from a multiplicative gain change. Basically, a given increment in stimulus intensity produces the same change in firing rate before and after the adaptation. In addition, the relative amount of adaptation, i.e. the ratio of driven onset firing rate to driven steady-state firing rate, is independent of tone intensity. Nonlinear effects that appear in the experimental results may be accounted for by two static nonlinearities, one preceding and one following the linear adaptation stage.

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Smith, R.L., Zwislocki, J.J. Short-term adaptation and incremental responses of single auditory-nerve fibers. Biol. Cybernetics 17, 169–182 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00364166

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