A neural cell model of MSO

Abstract

An explicit model of neural processing for individual cells in the medial superior olive (MSO) is developed. It is based on available physiological data and consists of a descriptive model of input patterns (characterizing the bushy cells in the AVCN) and an explicit MSO cell model that is expressed in terms of membrane conductances and potentials. The formulation of this model permits the evaluation of the reasonableness of parameter choices such as conductance values and time constants. For a given set of parameters, the MSO cell model generates patterns of firing, and these simulated output patterns are compared to actual patterns from physiological studies. Specific comparisons include discharge rates, vector strengths, and period histograms. It is argued that the results of these studies will provide insights into the binaural signal processing in MSO neurons and will provide a front-end for models of binaural psychophysics.<>