Armin H. Seidl, Ph.D.

Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center
University of Washington
Box 357923
Seattle, WA 98195

phone: (206) 616-4112
fax: (206) 221-5685
email: armins[a]u.washington.edu

Sound localization is pivotal not only to determine the location of a sound source, but also for sound segregation, like the suppression of unwanted noise in a loud environment. One of the main cues to localize sound in the azimuth are interaural time differences, or ITDs. As sound reaches our ears, the arrival time at each ear can be different. The resulting ITDs in the microsecond range are used by birds and mammals alike to determine the direction where the sound comes from. In birds, a well described circuit involving nucleus magnocellularis (NM) and nucleus laminaris (NL) is responsible for encoding ITDs. These pathways establish a place code along an isofrequency contour of NL with a sequential array of neurons encoding a corresponding sequence of sound source locations. My research focuses on analyzing the geometry and conduction distances in this sound localization circuit.

Seidl AH, Rubel EW, Harris DM.
Mechanisms for Adjusting Interaural Time Differences to Achieve Binaural Coincidence Detection
J Neurosci. In press.

Seidl AH, Rubel EW.
A simple method for multi-day imaging of slice cultures
Microscopy Res. Technique, 2009 Jun 29 PubMed

Harris JA, Iguchi F, Seidl AH, Lurie DI, Rubel EW.
Afferent deprivation elicits a transcriptional response associated with neuronal survival after a critical period in the mouse cochlear nucleus
J Neurosci. 2008 Oct 22;28(43):10990-1002. PubMed

Siveke I, Pecka M, Seidl AH, Baudoux S, Grothe B.
Binaural Response Properties of Low-Frequency Neurons in the Gerbil Dorsal Nucleus of the Lateral Lemniscus
J Neurophysiol. 2006 Sep;96(3):1425-40. PubMed

Seidl AH, Grothe B.
Development of sound localization mechanisms in the mongolian gerbil is shaped by early acoustic experience.
J Neurophysiol. 2005 Aug;94(2):1028-36. PubMed

Kapfer C, Seidl AH, Schweizer H, Grothe B.
Experience-dependent refinement of inhibitory inputs to auditory coincidence-detector neurons.
Nat Neurosci. 2002 Mar;5(3):247-53. PubMed