Paul Faure教授講演会
動物の聴覚情報処理・聴覚コミュニケーションに関連する神経メカニズムに関して幅広い研究を展開している，Paul Faure教授の講演会を下記の通り開催いたします．皆さまのご参加をお待ちしております．
タイトル：Spectrotemporal processing in the mammalian auditory midbrain
講演者：Paul Faure, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University
日時：2009年9月8日 (火) 13:30 -
会場：産業技術総合研究所 つくば中央第6, 6-11棟 2階 第4 & 5会議室
参加費：無料
交通アクセス：
http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_j/guidemap/tsukuba/center/tsukuba_map_c.html
会場地図：
http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_j/guidemap/pdf/info_desk.pdf
※ご注意：つくば中央第6, 6-1棟受付（会場地図参照）に入所登録を行い，6-11棟にお入りください．
本件に関するお問い合わせは，人間福祉医工学研究部門 永井聖剛まで
（masayoshi-nagai@aist.go.jp）
=====以下，講演アブストラクト=====
Spectrotemporal processing in the mammalian auditory midbrain.
Paul A. Faure
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior
McMaster University
The goal of my research is to understand the neural mechanisms of auditory processing in the central nervous system, and to relate neural mechanisms to perception and behavior. For example, temporal masking has been studied extensively psychophysically, yet the underlying neural mechanisms of backward, simultaneous and forward masking are still unclear. In the mammalian inferior colliculus (auditory midbrain) there exist neurons whose responses are highly tuned to signal duration, with different cells tuned to different best durations. These so-called duration tuned neurons (DTNs) are also tuned to signal frequency and signal amplitude. Application of inhibitory neurotransmitters antagonists alters the spike count and latency of many DTNs, indicating that DTNs receive inhibitory inputs with a different time course and latency from their excitatory inputs. This has led to the hypothesis that DTNs are created in the mammalian auditory midbrain through the convergence of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs that are offset in time. I have used paired-pulse acoustic stimulation and single unit extracellular recording to demonstrate that DTNs receive an onset-evoked inhibitory input that precedes an onset-evoked excitatory input. The duration of the leading inhibition correlates with a neuron's best duration, first spike latency, and duration tuning filter characteristic. The importance of these results to perception is that the neurobiology of duration tuning suggests a novel processing mechanism to explain auditory temporal masking in psychophysics.
