Hierarchical organization of the human auditory cortex revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging.
The concept of hierarchical processing--that the sensory world is broken down into basic features later integrated into more complex stimulus preferences--originated from investigations of the visual cortex. Recent studies of the auditory cortex in nonhuman primates revealed a comparable architecture, in which core areas, receiving direct input from the thalamus, in turn, provide input to a surrounding belt. Here functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that the human auditory cortex displays a similar hierarchical organization: pure tones (PTs) activate primarily the core, whereas belt areas prefer complex sounds, such as narrow-band noise bursts.
Georgetown Institute for Cognitive and Computational Sciences, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007-2197, USA.
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Wessinger
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VanMeter
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Tian
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Van Lare
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Pekar
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Rauschecker
D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male