Spectral and Temporal Processing in Human Auditory Cortex

Hall, Deborah A.; Johnsrude, Ingrid S.; Haggard, Mark; Palmer, Alan R.; Akeroyd, Michael A.; Summerfield, A. Quentin

doi:10.1093/cercor/12.2.140

Cited by 191 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…If we understand the cerebral cortex as a self-organizing network, it is more likely that at higher processing levels, beyond the subcortical pathways and primary sensory areas, representations develop for combinations of features that frequently occur together. Previous neurophysiological (8,11) and human neuroimaging studies (43,44) generally suggest that nonprimary regions, including PT/posterior STG, process progressively more complex sounds than the primary "core" regions of auditory cortex. These observations are in line with a previous MEG study (45) that systematically compared activations to individual and combined 3D sound features, and showed that ILD alone is not sufficient for producing direction-specific activations at the cortical level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuronal representations of distance in human auditory cortex

Kopčo

Huang

Belliveau

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Neuronal mechanisms of auditory distance perception are poorly understood, largely because contributions of intensity and distance processing are difficult to differentiate. Typically, the received intensity increases when sound sources approach us. However, we can also distinguish between soft-but-nearby and loud-but-distant sounds, indicating that distance processing can also be based on intensity-independent cues. Here, we combined behavioral experiments, fMRI measurements, and computational analyses to identify the neural representation of distance independent of intensity. In a virtual reverberant environment, we simulated sound sources at varying distances (15-100 cm) along the right-side interaural axis. Our acoustic analysis suggested that, of the individual intensity-independent depth cues available for these stimuli, direct-to-reverberant ratio (D/R) is more reliable and robust than interaural level difference (ILD). However, on the basis of our behavioral results, subjects' discrimination performance was more consistent with complex intensity-independent distance representations, combining both available cues, than with representations on the basis of either D/R or ILD individually. fMRI activations to sounds varying in distance (containing all cues, including intensity), compared with activations to sounds varying in intensity only, were significantly increased in the planum temporale and posterior superior temporal gyrus contralateral to the direction of stimulation. This fMRI result suggests that neurons in posterior nonprimary auditory cortices, in or near the areas processing other auditory spatial features, are sensitive to intensity-independent sound properties relevant for auditory distance perception.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuronal representations of distance in human auditory cortex

Kopčo

Huang

Belliveau

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Reduced activity in the fusiform gyrus during face perception has been observed in several autism studies (Hubl et al 2003;Pierce et al 2001;Schultz et al 2000), including a single case study (Grelotti et al 2005), with additional reports of reduced fusiform activity related to the processing of emotional facial expressions (Critchley et al 2000;Hall et al 2002;Piggot et al 2004). Interestingly however, two studies of face perception in autism (Hadjikhani et al 2004;Pierce et al 2004) found normal levels of activity in the fusiform gyrus.…”

Section: Functional Brain Organizationmentioning

confidence: 91%

The study of autism as a distributed disorder

Müller

2007

Ment. Retard. Dev. Disabil. Res. Rev.

173

135

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Past autism research has often been dedicated to tracing the causes of the disorder to a localized neurological abnormality, a single functional network, or a single cognitive-behavioral domain. In this review, I argue that autism is a 'distributed disorder' on various levels of study (genetic, neuroanatomical, neurofunctional, behavioral). 'Localizing' models are therefore not promising. The large array of potential genetic risk factors suggests that multiple (or all) emerging functional brain networks are affected during early development. This is supported by widespread growth abnormalities throughout the brain. Interactions during development between affected functional networks and atypical experiential effects (associated with atypical behavior) in children with autism further complicate the neurological bases of the disorder, resulting in an 'exponentially distributed' profile. Promising approaches to a better characterization of neural endophenotypes in autism are provided by techniques investigating white matter and connectivity, such as MR spectroscopy, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and functional connectivity MRI. According to a recent hypothesis, the autistic brain is generally characterized by 'underconnectivity'. However, not all findings are consistent with this view. The concepts and methodology of functional connectivity need to be refined and results need to be corroborated by anatomical studies (such as DTI tractography) before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

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“…An equally plausible hypothesis concerning spatial separation of local and global auditory processing is that local information might be preferentially processed in ventral areas and global information in more dorsal areas. Human auditory cortex, like visual cortex, is functionally organized in a hierarchical manner such that core areas are activated by simple stimuli (e.g., pure tones) whereas belt and parabelt areas preferentially respond to more complex sounds (Binder et al, 1997;Hall et al, 2002;Price et al, 1996;Wessinger et al, 2001). Evidence that corticocortical connections from different belt and parabelt areas diverge into a primarily anterior and a primarily posterior stream (Kaas, Hackett, & Tramo, 1999;Romanski et al, 1999) has been used to argue that there are two major functional divisions of auditory processing beyond auditory cortex (Rauschecker, 1998;Rauschecker, Tian, & Hauser, 1995).…”

Section: Lateralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local and global auditory processing: Behavioral and ERP evidence

Sanders

Poeppel

2007

Neuropsychologia

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Differential processing of local and global visual features is well established. Global precedence effects, differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited when attention is focused on local versus global levels, and hemispheric specialization for local and global features all indicate that relative scale of detail is an important distinction in visual processing. Observing analogous differential processing of local and global auditory information would suggest that scale of detail is a general organizational principle of the brain. However, to date the research on auditory local and global processing has primarily focused on music perception or on the perceptual analysis of relatively higher and lower frequencies. The study described here suggests that temporal aspects of auditory stimuli better capture the local-global distinction. By combining short (40 ms) frequency modulated tones in series to create global auditory patterns (500 ms), we independently varied whether pitch increased or decreased over short time spans (local) and longer time spans (global). Accuracy and reaction time measures revealed better performance for global judgments and asymmetric interference that were modulated by amount of pitch change. ERPs recorded while participants listened to identical sounds and indicated the direction of pitch change at the local or global levels provided evidence for differential processing similar to that found in ERP studies employing hierarchical visual stimuli. ERP measures failed to provide evidence for lateralization of local and global auditory perception, but differences in distributions suggest preferential processing in more ventral and dorsal areas respectively. Keywords selective attention; event-related potential; temporal; congruency; lateralization; pitch Visual perception can vary drastically across different spatial scales. A compelling demonstration of how scale affects visual analysis is provided by the tension between local and global elements in portraits by the artist Chuck Close. For many of his pictures, face recognition only occurs when attention is focused on low spatial frequency information at the global level. Data from various methodologies support the view that visual information at relatively small and large spatial scales is differentially processed in the human brain. It has also been suggested that this local-global distinction may define a general organizational principle (Ivry & Robertson, 1998;Sergent, 1982). However, a lack of robust evidence for Corresponding Author: Lisa D. Sanders, lsanders@psych.umass.edu, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, (413) 545 -5962. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the p...

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Spectral and Temporal Processing in Human Auditory Cortex

Cited by 191 publications

References 39 publications

Neuronal representations of distance in human auditory cortex

Neuronal representations of distance in human auditory cortex

The study of autism as a distributed disorder

Local and global auditory processing: Behavioral and ERP evidence

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