Tuning of timing in auditory axons
New study done by a team of researchers led by GSN Speaker Professor Benedikt Grothe, in collaboration with colleagues based at University College London
26.08.2015
A team led by GSN Speaker Prof. Benedikt Grothe has shown that the axons of auditory neurons in the brainstem which respond to low and high-frequency sounds differ in their morphology, and that these variations correlate with differences in the speed of signal conduction.
“Our findings clearly refute the conventional notion that the speed of signal transmission in the myelinized axon of vertebrate neurons always increases in proportion to the length of the internodes,” says Prof. Grothe. The new results appear in the latest issue of the online journal “Nature Communications”.
The group have unexpectedly discovered that structural adaptations relating to the nodes of Ranvier and the intervening internodes in the auditory neurons in the mammalian brainstem play a critical role in tuning the rate and precision of signal propagation via these pathways.
First author of the article is GSN Alumnus Dr. Marc Ford.
