Figure 4.

Auditory thalamostriatal and corticostriatal neurons encode sound frequency with similar fidelity. A, Example frequency-intensity tuning curve from a striatal-projecting neuron in auditory thalamus (ATh). Tuning curves were generated by recording neural responses to 100 ms pure tone pips at 16 frequencies (2–40 kHz) and 12 intensities (15–70 dB SPL in 5 dB steps). B, Example frequency-intensity tuning curve from a striatal-projecting neuron in auditory cortex. C, No statistically significant difference in tuning bandwidth at BW10 was observed between tuned auditory thalamostriatal (n = 24) and auditory corticostriatal (AC; n = 27) neurons. Str, Striatal. D, Intensity threshold for responses to pure tones was lower in auditory corticostriatal neurons than thalamostriatal neurons. E, Auditory thalamostriatal neurons display shorter response latencies to pure tones than corticostriatal neurons. F, No statistically significant difference was observed in the ratio of onset spike rate to sustained spike rate between thalamostriatal and corticostriatal neurons. G, Thalamostriatal neurons display more monotonic responses to sound level than corticostriatal neurons. Stars represent p < 0.05. Black bars indicate the median value of each group.