3 credits
Fall 2026 Lecture Upper Division
Section I: Neuroanatomy, Anatomy terminology, overview of cochlear neuroanatomy; afferent and efferent cochlear innervation; auditory nerve formation and termination points in the cochlear nucleus; Neuroanatomy of Cochlear Nucleus, Superior Olivary complex, Nuclei of Lateral lemniscus, Inferior colliculus, Medial geniculate body and the auditory cortex, corticofugal efferent pathways complex. Section II: Physiology, Neuronal Physiology; response properties of the auditory nerve, cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complex, inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body and auditory cortex, rate-place and temporal-place neural encoding schemes in the auditory nerve, intensity encoding, frequency tuning in normal and cochlear loss, binaural processing in the superior olivary complex and inferior colliculus, feature maps in the inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body and serial, parallel, hierarchical processing in the auditory cortex and role of cortico thalamic and corticocollicular pathways in shaping subcortical neural representation.
Learning Outcomes1Remember and integrate the neuroanatomical organization of nuclei and tracts along the central auditory ascending and descending pathways.
2Evaluate and integrate the functional properties of different neurons in each nucleus along the central auditory pathway and apply to understand how they contribute to the neural mechanisms for encoding stimulus features important for perception.
3Understand and integrate the anatomical and physiological bases for normal hearing processes along the auditory pathway and apply knowledge to evaluate how structural lesions can impair hearing processes in the central auditory system and its relationship to lesions in the peripheral auditory system.
4Evaluate and analyze the anatomical and physiological bases of sensorineural hearing loss, and central auditory processing deficits.
5Understand and evaluate the general structure function relationship in the central auditory system and learn to predict the perceptual consequences of structural lesions.
6Apply knowledge of the relationship between structure and function as a rationale for the creation/development of clinical diagnostic tests.
Restrictions
made by Purdue students.