title: Orbitofrontal contribution to auditory encoding.
abstract: Having recently demonstrated that the human orbitofrontal cortex is selectively activated during the encoding of visual information, we investigated whether this same frontal region, which is directly connected to medial temporal structures, would be activated during the encoding of auditory stimuli. We measured cerebral blood flow (CBF) with positron emission tomography (PET) during the encoding of nonverbal abstract auditory stimuli in a group of young healthy volunteers. The results demonstrate that the left orbitofrontal cortex, area 11 in particular, is involved in the encoding of auditory information. We suggest that the orbitofrontal cortex is a critical frontal region that can exert top-down regulation of other regions of the brain including the medial temporal structures and the lateral frontal cortex, enabling the further processing of information.
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B4. stephen@bic.mni.mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.forename: Penelope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kostopoulos
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petrides
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009915:Orbit; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed