Organization of inhibitory feed-forward synapses from the dorsal to the ventral cochlear nucleus in the cat: a quantitative analysis of endings by vesicle morphology.

The main ascending, excitatory pathway from the cochlea undergoes synaptic interruption in the dorsal and ventral cochlear nuclei. The dorsal cochlear nucleus also forms a feed-forward circuit, which receives cochlear input and projects to the ventral cochlear nucleus by a tuberculo-ventral tract. This circuit may provide an inhibitory fringe (side bands) surrounding the center bands of the main ascending pathway.