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Brain center for 'sound space' identified
September 20, 2007While the visual regions of the brain have been intensively mapped, many important regions for auditory processing remain terra incognita. Now, researchers have identified the region responsible for a key auditory process-perceiving "sound space," the location of sounds. The findings settle a controversy in earlier studies that failed to establish the auditory region, called the planum temporale, as responsible for perceiving auditory space.
Leon Y. Deouell and colleagues published their findings in the September 20, 2007 issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press.
However, Deouell and colleagues used an improved experimental design that enabled them to more sensitively determine the brain's auditory spatial location center. For example, they presented their human subjects with sounds against a background of silence, used headphones that more accurately reproduced sound location, used noise with a rich spectrum which has been shown to be more readily locatable in space, and created an individually tailored sound space for each subject by using sounds previously recorded directly from the subjects' own ears.
In their experiments, they presented bursts of the noise to the volunteers wearing the headphones while the subjects' brains were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this widely used brain-scanning technique, harmless magnetic fields and radio waves are used to image blood flow in brain regions, which reflects brain activity in those locations.
The subjects were instructed to ignore the sounds. And, to divert their attention, they either watched a movie with the sound turned off or were given a simple button-pushing task.
When the position of the noise bursts was varied in space, the researchers found that the planum temporale in the subjects' brain was, indeed, activated. What's more, the greater the number of distinct sound locations subjects heard during test runs, the greater the activity in the planum temporale.
The researchers concluded that their experiments "suggest that neurons in this region represent, in a nonintentional or preattentive fashion, the location of sound sources in the environment." They wrote that "Space representation in this region may provide the neural substrate needed for an orientation response to critical auditory events and for linking auditory information with information acquired through other modalities."
Cell Press
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Brain waves show sound processing abnormalities in autistic children
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Memory impairment associated with sound processing disorder
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Rutgers Research: Impairments in Language Development
Uncover how the brains of infants distinguish differences in sounds and it may become possible to correct language problems even before children start to speak, sparing them the difficulties that come from struggling with language.
Hearing changes how we perceive gender
Think about the confused feelings that occur when you meet someone whose tone of voice doesn't seem to quite fit with his or her gender.
Sensitivity of brain center for 'sound space' defined
While the visual regions of the brain have been intensively mapped, many important regions for auditory processing remain "uncharted territory." Now, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere have identified a region responsible for a key auditory process - perceiving "sound space," the location of sounds, even when the listener is not concentrating on those sounds.
Ability to listen to 2 things at once is largely inherited, says twin study
Your ability to listen to a phone message in one ear while a friend is talking into your other ear-and comprehend what both are saying-is an important communication skill that's heavily influenced by your genes.
Research finds music training 'tunes' human auditory system
A newly published study by Northwestern University researchers suggests that Mom was right when she insisted that you continue music lessons — even after it was clear that a professional music career was not in your future.
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