Functional imaging of the central auditory system using PET

Abstract

In the last few decades functional neuroimaging tools have emerged to study the function of the human brain in vivo. These techniques have increased the knowledge of how the brain processes stimuli of different sensory modalities, including auditory processing. Positron emission tomography (PET) has been used for nearly 20 years to study changes in cerebral blood flow associated with auditory stimulation in normal and hearing impaired subjects. PET studies gave insight into the neural base of processing basic sound features such as frequency and intensity, but complex stimuli such as speech and music have also been investigated extensively. Knowledge of the normal auditory function of the brain helps us to understand the neural base of hearing deficits and provides ideas for possible treatments. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is replacing PET in many neuroimaging studies nowadays, PET still holds unique advantages and can give us valuable knowledge about the auditory cortex and auditory perception.

Neural activity underlying tinnitus generation: Results from PET and fMRI

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Neural correlates of human somatosensory integration in tinnitus

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Auditory Processing Disorder (APD): Progress in Diagnostics So Far. A Mini-Review on Imaging Techniques

“…Currently, PET is likely to be used in APD for research purposes and when fMRI cannot be used due to the presence of incompatible materials, as in patients with cochlear implants [18] . This is also true for NIRS [17] .…”

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