Neural correlates of gap detection and auditory fusion in cat auditory cortex

Responses were recorded from 130 single neurones in the primary auditory cortex of 12 ketamine-anaesthetized cats in response to double-click stimuli, to a /ba/-/pa/ phoneme continuum and to gaps inserted early (after 5 ms) and late (after 500 ms) in a 1 s duration noiseburst. Stimulus levels were between 45 and 75 dB SPL. Neural detection threshold for the 'late gap' was less than 5 ms. For the double click and 'early gap' stimuli thresholds were between 40 and 50 ms, whereas the phoneme continuum threshold for voice-onset-time (VOT) was between 10 and 25 ms. The 'late gap' and VOT thresholds are similar to psychophysical gap detection and the /ba/-/pa/ categorical perception boundary respectively.