RESPONSES OF AUDITORY CORTICAL NEURONS TO STIMULI OF CHANGING FREQUENCY

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Abstract
Responses of single neurons in the unanaesthetized primary auditory cortex of the cat were studied using frequency-modulated (F.M.) stimuli having both sinusoidal and ramp envelopes. Many units responded periodically to such periodic stimuli and did so more securely than when responding to steady tones. Some units, for example, were found to have considerably wider response areas for F.M. tones than for steady tones. About 10% of all units responding to F.M. stimuli did not respond to steady tones at all. Many units exhibited frequency orientation i.e., they responded only when the frequency was rising and not when it was falling, or vice-versa. In some units this direction was quite independent of the center frequency, but in others was dependent on that frequency.