Evidence for interactions across frequency channels in the inferior colliculus of awake chinchilla.

As a result of cochlear processing, information about acoustic broadband signals is distributed across many parallel frequency channels. Periodic modulations of signal envelopes - conspicuous in particular in harmonic signals - may extend across a wide frequency range and give rise to temporal response patterns in the auditory nerve, particularly useful for recombination of constituents and the separation of the signals from background noise. Herein we report evidence that across frequency processing as necessary for binding of related signal components occurs already in the auditory midbrain of mammals.