Models of Binaural Processing Based on Neural Patterns in the Medial Superior Olive

As part of our effort to create models of binaural processing that incorporate both psychophysical and physiological aspects of hearing, we estimate the psychophysical performance that could be achieved using the neural counts from a population of hypothetical cells that are modeled after the principal cells of the MSO. The variance of the maximum likelihood estimate of interaural phase difference is estimated and used to predict performance in interaural time discrimination and binaural detection. Calculated optimum performance is compared to empirical performance and differences are discussed.