Dissection of the contribution of bushy cell delays to sound localization in juvenile and adult Mongolian gerbils

Developmental speedup of ear-to-medial superior olive delays in juvenile Mongolian gerbils brings bITDs into ecological range, but ipsilateral BC-to-MSO delay does not decrease.

• Why it matters: The Jeffress framework depends on coincidence-sensitive MSO neurons matching interaural time differences, yet how bushy-cell delays originate and change with age is unclear.
• What they did: Recordings from bushy cells in adult and 2–4-week-old Meriones unguiculatus measured first-spike latency for pure tones versus complex sounds, then were combined with published MSO recordings and supported by brainstem reconstructions.
• The result: Most delays decreased with development, including contralateral BC-to-MSO axonal delay, while ipsilateral delay stayed unchanged; stable inter-MSO distance with increased cochlear nucleus-to-MSO distance implies faster propagation, especially contralaterally.

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