Ventral cochlear nucleus coding of voice onset time in naturally spoken syllables

Abstract

These experiments examined the coding of the voice onset time (VOT) of six naturally spoken syllables, presented at a number of intensities, by ventral cochlear nucleus (VCN) neurons in rats anesthetized with urethane. VOT is one of the cues for the identification of a stop consonant, and is defined by the interval between stop release and the first glottal pulse that marks the onset of voicing associated with a vowel. The syllables presented (/bot/, /dot/, /got/, /pot/, /tot/, /kot/) each had a different VOT, ranging between 10 and 108 ms. Extracellular recordings were made from single neurons (N=202) with a wide range of best frequencies (BFs; 0.66-10 kHz) that represented the major VCN re..