Recovery cycles of neurons in the inferior colliculus, the pontine nuclei and the auditory cortex of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus

This study examines the recovery cycles of neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC), the pontine nuclei (PN) and the auditory cortex (AC) of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, using a pair of identical pulses at different interpulse intervals. Although the recovery cycle varies among neurons, on average, AC neurons have the longest recovery cycle and PN neurons have the shortest one. The recovery cycle of IC neurons is slightly longer than PN neurons. Neurons tend to have longer recovery cycles when determined with long pulse duration than short one. The minimum threshold of these neurons to the second pulse increases with decreasing interpulse interval. The difference in the recovery cycles of these neurons supports previous findings that IC and PN neurons can follow sound pulses at higher rates than AC neurons do.