title: A multilevel and cross-modal approach towards neuronal mechanisms of auditory streaming.
abstract: We report first results of a multilevel, cross-modal study on the neuronal mechanisms underlying auditory sequential streaming, with the focus on the impact of visual sequences on perceptually ambiguous tone sequences which can either be perceived as two separate streams or one alternating stream. We combined two psychophysical experiments performed on humans and monkeys with two human brain imaging experiments which allow to obtain complementary information on brain activation with high spatial (fMRI) and high temporal (MEG) resolution. The same acoustic paradigm based on the pairing of tone sequences with visual stimuli was used in all human studies and, in an adapted version, in the psychophysical study on monkeys. Our multilevel approach provides experimental evidence that the pairing of auditory and visual stimuli can reliably introduce a bias towards either an integrated or a segregated perception of ambiguous sequences. Thus, comparable to an explicit instruction, this approach can be used to control the subject's perceptual organization of an ambiguous sound sequence without the need for the subject to directly report it. This finding is of particular importance for animal studies because it allows to compare electrophysiological responses of auditory cortex neurons to the same acoustic stimulus sequence eliciting either a segregated or integrated percept.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Audiology and Medical Physics, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany. torsten.rahne@med.ovgu.de
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rahne
authors.forename: Susann
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deike
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Selezneva
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brosch
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: König
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Scheich
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Böckmann
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brechmann
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013016:Sound; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen