UC Irvine

ALL OF TIIE vmth NERVE FIBERS originating in the coch lea terminate in the cochlear nucleus, the first central station of the auditory pathway. Extracellular recordings from units in this nucleus have shown a diversity of both spontaneous and tone-evoked activities compared to activity in Vlllth nerve fibers. Tone-evoked inhibition of spontaneous activity occurs with certainty in the cochlear nucleus (8, 9, 12), but has not been securely demonstrated in VIIlth nerve (5, 9, 10, 18, 22), and response patterns to steady tones are quite varied in cochlear nucleus (15), whereas a single response pattern characterizes VIII th nerve fibers (I 0). The synaptic events in cochlear nucleus that accompany acoustic stimulation have only recently begun to be explored (4, 6). The present study utilizes intracellular recordings and stimulating techniques in the cochlear nucleus to further delineate the synaptic basis for central processing of auditory signals.