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Studies of auditory cortex are often driven by the assumption, derived from our better understanding of visual cortex, that basic physical properties of sounds are represented there before being used by higher-level areas for determining sound-source identity and location. However, we only have a limited appreciation of what the cortex adds to the extensive subcortical processing of auditory information, which can account for many perceptual abilities. This is partly because of the approaches that have dominated the study of auditory cortical processing to date, and future progress will unquestionably profit from the adoption of methods that have provided valuable insights into the neural basis of visual perception. At the same time, we propose that there are unique operating principles employed by the auditory cortex that relate largely to the simultaneous and sequential processing of previously derived features and that therefore need to be studied and understood in their own right.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/nn.2308

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nat Neurosci

Publication Date

06/2009

Volume

12

Pages

698 - 701

Keywords

Action Potentials, Animals, Auditory Cortex, Auditory Pathways, Auditory Perception, Brain Mapping, Humans, Neural Pathways, Neurons, Pitch Perception, Sound Localization, Visual Cortex, Visual Perception