Decoding feature information in human auditory cortex—A comparison of auditory perception, short-term memory and imagery

Abstract

The flexible nature of auditory cortex, the complexity of real-world sounds, and limitations of the methods for neural measurement in humans have made it difficult to investigate auditory feature information processing in the human brain. Which precise features are encoded in auditory cortex and the roles they play in different cognitive tasks remained unclear. New methods for functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) provide solutions to these limitations. New acquisition sequences make less noise, improving the suitability of fMRI for auditory research. Real-time adaptive fMRI and multivariate pattern analysis methods are robust to individual differences in anatomy and exploit information in distributed neural networks. They allow assessment of which acoustic and abstracted features of simple and natural sounds are represented in human auditory regions during perception, and cognitive tasks such as change detection and imagery. The results indicate that auditory cortex is recruited for processes beyond analyzing simple feature information, playing an important role in maintaining sounds in short-term memory and encoding abstracted information during imagery. This research was supported by the Medical Research Council (UK) and The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario.