I'm wondering whether increasing the volume would result in (a) a neuron that was already firing to now increase its spike rate, (b) a different group of neurons to add their activity to the population total, (c) a different group of neurons, coding for the new volume, to become active while the first group of neurons silences, or (d) some combination of the above. In particular, I'm curious about the subcortical portion of the auditory pathway.

I am wondering whether increasing the volume would result in (a) a neuron that was already firing to now increase its spike rate, (b) a different group of neurons to add their activity to the population total, (c) a different group of neurons, coding for the new volume, to become active while the first group of neurons silences, or (d) some combination of the above. In particular, I am curious about the subcortical portion of the auditory pathway.