Auditory Pathway

The Springer Handbook of Auditory Research presents a series of com prehensive and synthetic reviews of the fundamental topics in modem auditory research. It is aimed at all individuals with interests in hearing research including advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and clinical investigators. The volumes will introduce new investigators to important aspects of hearing science and will help established inves tigators to better understand the fundamental theories and data in fields of hearing that they may not normally follow closely. Each volume is intended to present a particular topic comprehensively, and each chapter will serve as a synthetic overview and guide to the literature. As such, the chapters present neither exhaustive data reviews nor original research that has not yet appeared in peer-reviewed journals. The series focusses on topics that have developed a solid data and con ceptual foundation rather than on those for which a literature is only beginning to develop. New research areas will be covered on a timely basis in the series as they begin to mature.

The Springer Handbook of Auditory Research presents a series of com prehensive and synthetic reviews of the fundamental topics in modern auditory research. It is aimed at all individuals with interests in hearing research including advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and clinical investigators. The volumes will introduce new investigators to important aspects of hearing science and will help established inves tigators to better understand the fundamental theories and data in fields of hearing that they may not normally follow closely. Each volume is intended to present a particular topic comprehensively, and each chapter will serve as a synthetic overview and guide to the literature. As such, the chapters present neither exhaustive data reviews nor original research that has not yet appeared in peer-reviewed journals. The series focusses on topics that have developed a solid data and con ceptual foundation rather than on those for which a literature is only beginning to develop. New research areas will be covered on a timely basis in the series as they begin to mature.

This is a graduate-level text on the neurobiology of hearing, covering the structure and function of the central auditory pathway of all mammals.

The auditory system has a remarkable ability to adjust to an ever-changing environment. The six review chapters that comprise Plasticity of the Central Auditory System cover a spectrum of issues concerning this ability to adapt, defined by the widely applicable term "plasticity". With chapters focusing on the development of the cochlear nucleus, the mammalian superior olivary complex, plasticity in binaural hearing, plasticity in the auditory cortex, neural plasticity in bird songs, and plasticity in the insect auditory system, this volume represents much of the most current research in this field. The volume is thorough enough to stand alone, but is closely related a previous SHAR volume, Development of the Auditory System (Volume 9) by Rubel, Popper, and Fay. The book fully addresses the difficulties, challenges, and complexities of this topic as it applies to the auditory development of a wide variety of species.

There has been substantial progress in understanding the contributions of the auditory forebrain to hearing, sound localization, communication, emotive behavior, and cognition. The Auditory Cortex covers the latest knowledge about the auditory forebrain, including the auditory cortex as well as the medial geniculate body in the thalamus. This book will cover all important aspects of the auditory forebrain organization and function, integrating the auditory thalamus and cortex into a smooth, coherent whole. Volume One covers basic auditory neuroscience. It complements The Auditory Cortex, Volume 2: Integrative Neuroscience, which takes a more applied/clinical perspective.

The contributors to this volume have provided a detailed and integrated introduction to the behavioural, anatomical, and physiological changes that occur in the auditory system of developing animals. Edwin W Rubel is Virginia Merrill Bloedel Professor of Hearing Sciences at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of Washington, Arthur N. Popper is Professor and Chair of the Department of Zoology at the University of Maryland, while Richard R. Fay is Associate Director of the Parmly Hearing Institute and Professor of Psychology at Loyola University of Chicago. Each volume in this series is independent and authoritative; taken as a set, the series will be the definitive resource in the field.

Since the last symposium on "Neuronal Mechanisms of Hearing" held in Prague in 1980 and published in the volume of the same name (J. Syka and L. Aitkin, Eds. , Plenum Press, 1981), remarkable progress has been achieved in the understanding of the auditory system. A variety of new ideas and new methods have emerged. This progress can be easily documented by comparing the volume based on the 1980 Symposium with the program for the 1987 Symposium. For example, there were 45 contributions to auditory physiology in each symposium but there were 27 contributions focusing on anatomy in 1987 as compared to 7 in 1980, and perhaps most telling, there were 12 contributions to the neurochemistry of the system in 1987 while there were only 3 in 1980. In terms of percentages of contributions, neuroanatomy rose from 13% to 32% and neurochemistry (or chemical anatomy) rose from 5% in 1980 to 14% in 1987. These increases in the numbers and proportions of anatomical and neurochemical contributions undoubtedly reflects the increasing availabil ity and rising expertise in the new neuroanatomica1 and biochemical techniques most notably, tract-tracing by exploitation of axonal transport or by intracellular micro-injection methods, and neurotransmitter identifi cation by use of immunocytochemistry or receptor-binding techniques. New ideas have emerged on the function of cochlear hair cells particularly in connection with olivococh1ear bundle stimulation and supported by findings of contractile proteins in outer hair cells.

Scientific investigations of a descriptive nature involve in creasingly refined definitions of a problem. An idea is trans formed after initial experiments into a working hypothesis that has a number of testable consequences. Rarely in the neurosci ences do such tests completely falsify the hypothesis; more commonly they lead to a modified, more general hypothesis. One could argue that in order to define a scientific problem, one must first understand it. This monograph is an attempt to draw together knowledge and understanding from various disciplines, collected from studies carried out over more than 80 yr, of the functions of the auditory midbrain. This part of the brain has been of continuing interest to me, from my days as a postgraduate student in the mid-1960s to the present time, because so many ideas about central auditory organization and function have developed from studies of this region. This book is dedicated to Jerzy E. Rose, Professor Emer itus of Neurophysiology at the University of Wisconsin. His intellect and clarity of mind have been responsible for many of the modern ideas of auditory neurophysiology. These ideas have been incorporated into a series of classic papers on audi tory neuroscience that will be important for a long time to corne. In addition, Jerzy Rose has been an inspired teacher whose precepts of brain structure and function have been a major influence on his students, including the author.