Simulation of auditory–neural transduction: Further studies

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Abstract
A computational model of mechanical to neural transduction at the hair cell-auditory-nerve synapse is presented. It produces a stream of events (spikes) that are precisely located in time in response to an arbitrary stimulus and is intended for use as an input to automatic speech recognition systems as well as a contribution to the theory of the origin of auditory-nerve spike activity. The behavior of the model is compared to data from animal studies in the following tests: (a) rate-intensity functions for adapted and unadapted responding; (b) two-component short-term adaptation; (c) frequency-limited phase locking of events; (d) additivity of responding following stimulus-intensity increases and decreases; (c) recovery of spontaneous activity following stimulus offset; and (f) recovery of ability to respond to a second stimulus following offset of a first stimulus. The behavior of the model compares well with empirical data but discrepancies in tests (d) and (f) point to the need for further development. Additional functions that have been successfully simulated in previous tests include realistic interspike-interval histograms for silence and intense sinusoidal stimuli, realistic poststimulus period histograms at various intensities and nonmonotonic functions relating incremental and decremental responses to background stimulus intensity. The model is computationally convenient and well suited to use in automatic recognition devices that use models of the peripheral auditory system as input devices. It is particularly well suited to devices that require stimulus phase information to be preserved at low frequencies.