Vanguardia en el estudio del córtex auditivo. demostración de su activación mediante resonancia magnética funcional

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this preliminary study has been to demonstrate and investigate the activation patterns of the primary auditory cortex (Heschl´s gyrus = HG) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Material and MethodsA 2500 Hz tone stimulus was delivered monoaurally to the right and left ear of 15 normal-hearing right-handed volunteers in 20-second on-off cycles. FMRI data were obtained using a 1.5-Tesla scanner and processed with SPM2 ResultsActivated pixels were identified in the transverse temporal gyrus (Heschl´s gyrus) of both hemispheres in response to pure tone stimuli using crosscorrelation analysis (P<0.001). Bilateral hemispheric activation was observed in all subjects and there was a trend towards contralateral HG activation to the stimulated ear ConclusionThese results demonstrate directly that fMRI is a new and useful imaging technique to study the complex auditory cortex and it will have potential clinical applications in the next future