One of our primary objectives has been to determine how a sound is encoded in these patterns of neural activity. In studying this problem we employ a variety of techniques including microelectrode recording, animal behavioral testing and mathematical modeling.
Computers play a central role in both experimental control and data processing.
Beginning with simple sounds such as tones and noise we have moved to the encoding of combinations of tones and recently extended these results to the encoding of vowels and consonants from human speech. In working out the encoding of sound stimuli in the auditory nerve we also investigate the cochlear mechanisms responsible for generating these codes. For example, we are currently studying the role of efferent feedback from the brain to the cochlea in neural encoding. Finally, now that we are beginning to get an idea of how information is encoded at the auditory periphery, we are beginning to explore the mechanisms by which the information is decoded in the central nervous system.