Information Processing in Mammalian Auditory Tactile Systems

This text explores the shared and contrasting strategies for signalling and processing sensory information within auditory and tactile sytems and describes their physiologic organization. It brings together researchers in aspects of sensory physiology whose studies are linked by their reliance upon mechanoreceptor mechanisms. The book has a strong functional emphasis and is based on electrophysiological analyses from the receptor level to the anatomic level, probing the sensory and motor areas of the cerebral cortex. It presents recent research data on mechanisms of auditory transduction, efferent control of cochlear function, the coding of information about sound intensity, directional aspects of hearing, frequency parameters of simple and complex vibrotactile stimuli, development and reorganization within auditory tactile systems, the application of fundamental sensory research to the problems of deafness.