Auditory neuroscience: Development, transduction, and integration

Auditory neuroscience: Development, transduction, and integration

A. J. Hudspeth*,† and
Masakazu Konishi‡

^*Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021-6399; and ^‡Division of Biology 216-76, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125

Abstract

Hearing underlies our ability to locate sound sources in the environment, our appreciation of music, and our ability to communicate. Participants in the National Academy of Sciences colloquium on Auditory Neuroscience: Development, Transduction, and Integration presented research results bearing on four key issues in auditory research. How does the complex inner ear develop? How does the cochlea transduce sounds into electrical signals? How does the brain's ability to compute the location of a sound source develop? How does the forebrain analyze complex sounds, particularly species-specific communications? This article provides an introduction to the papers stemming from the meeting.

Footnotes

↵ † To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: hudspaj{at}rockvax.rockefeller.edu.
This paper is the introduction to the following papers, which were presented at the National Academy of Sciences colloquium “Auditory Neuroscience: Development, Transduction, and Integration,” held on May 19–21, 2000, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, CA.