Journal of Neurophysiology, Vol 60, Issue 6 1841-1860, Copyright © 1988 by APS
Role of the acoustic striae in hearing: contribution of dorsal and intermediate striae to detection of noises and tones
R. B. Masterton and E. M. Granger
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306.
1. Behavioral thresholds were obtained from cats, first with only their
right ear and right dorsal, intermediate, and ventral acoustic striae (DAS,
IAS, and VAS, respectively) intact, and then again with only their right
ventral acoustic stria intact. 2. Using usual definitions of "threshold"
the loss of the dorsal and intermediate acoustic striae results in no
measurable deficit in the detection of noises or tones on a silent
background. 3. In sharp contrast, even partial damage of the ventral
acoustic stria (i.e., trapezoid body section) results in marked deficits in
sound detection. 4. Therefore, the ventral acoustic stria is both necessary
and sufficient to maintain normal acoustical sensitivity. 5. However, loss
of the dorsal and intermediate striae seems to result in a degradation of
reliability in the detection of suprathreshold sounds--perhaps akin to a
deficit in listening.
