The Neurophysiological Bases Of Auditory Perception

This volume contains the papers presented at the 15th International Symposium on Hearing (ISH), which was held at the Hotel Regio, Santa Marta de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain, between 1st and 5th June 2009. Since its inception in 1969, this Symposium has been a forum of excellence for debating the neurophysiological basis of auditory perception, with computational models as tools to test and unify physiological and perceptual theories. Every paper in this symposium includes two of the following: auditory physiology, psychoph- ics or modeling. The topics range from cochlear physiology to auditory attention and learning. While the symposium is always hosted by European countries, p- ticipants come from all over the world and are among the leaders in their fields. The result is an outstanding symposium, which has been described by some as a “world summit of auditory research. ” The current volume has a bottom-up structure from “simpler” physiological to more “complex” perceptual phenomena and follows the order of presentations at the meeting. Parts I to III are dedicated to information processing in the peripheral au- tory system and its implications for auditory masking, spectral processing, and c- ing. Part IV focuses on the physiological bases of pitch and timbre perception. Part V is dedicated to binaural hearing. Parts VI and VII cover recent advances in und- standing speech processing and perception and auditory scene analysis. Part VIII focuses on the neurophysiological bases of novelty detection, attention, and learning.

This volume contains the papers presented at the 15th International Symposium on Hearing (ISH), which was held at the Hotel Regio, Santa Marta de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain, between 1st and 5th June 2009. Since its inception in 1969, this Symposium has been a forum of excellence for debating the neurophysiological basis of auditory perception, with computational models as tools to test and unify physiological and perceptual theories. Every paper in this symposium includes two of the following: auditory physiology, psychoph- ics or modeling. The topics range from cochlear physiology to auditory attention and learning. While the symposium is always hosted by European countries, p- ticipants come from all over the world and are among the leaders in their fields. The result is an outstanding symposium, which has been described by some as a “world summit of auditory research. ” The current volume has a bottom-up structure from “simpler” physiological to more “complex” perceptual phenomena and follows the order of presentations at the meeting. Parts I to III are dedicated to information processing in the peripheral au- tory system and its implications for auditory masking, spectral processing, and c- ing. Part IV focuses on the physiological bases of pitch and timbre perception. Part V is dedicated to binaural hearing. Parts VI and VII cover recent advances in und- standing speech processing and perception and auditory scene analysis. Part VIII focuses on the neurophysiological bases of novelty detection, attention, and learning.

This account of the auditory cortex brings together research in the various disciplines of neuroscience. Its purpose is to give the reader an adequate background for understanding the mechanisms of normal auditory cortical function and cortical deafness. It is designed to inform readers with a variety of backgrouds, including physiologists, anatomists, psychologists and neurologists. To this end the terminology needed to express ideas about auditory cortical structure and function is related to a chapter in which methodology is stressed.

We live in a complex and dynamically changing acoustic environment. To this end, the auditory cortex of humans has developed the ability to process a remarkable amount of diverse acoustic information with apparent ease. In fact, a phylogenetic comparison of auditory systems reveals that human auditory association cortex in particular has undergone extensive changes relative to that of other species, although our knowledge of this remains incomplete. In contrast to other senses, human auditory cortex receives input that is highly pre-processed in a number of sub-cortical structures; this suggests that even primary auditory cortex already performs quite complex analyses. At the same time, much of the functional role of the various sub-areas in human auditory cortex is still relatively unknown, and a more sophisticated understanding is only now emerging through the use of contemporary electrophysiological and neuroimaging techniques. The integration of results across the various techniques signify a new era in our knowledge of how human auditory cortex forms basis for auditory experience. This volume on human auditory cortex will have two major parts. In Part A, the principal methodologies currently used to investigate human auditory cortex will be discussed. Each chapter will first outline how the methodology is used in auditory neuroscience, highlighting the challenges of obtaining data from human auditory cortex; second, each methods chapter will provide two or (at most) three brief examples of how it has been used to generate a major result about auditory processing. In Part B, the central questions for auditory processing in human auditory cortex are covered. Each chapter can draw on all the methods introduced in Part A but will focus on a major computational challenge the system has to solve. This volume will constitute an important contemporary reference work on human auditory cortex. Arguably, this will be the first and most focused book on this critical neurological structure. The combination of different methodological and experimental approaches as well as a diverse range of aspects of human auditory perception ensures that this volume will inspire novel insights and spurn future research.

Recent advances in anatomical, physiological, and psychophysical techniques and new formal analyses have made considerable advances in integrating the various aspects of hearing.

There has been substantial progress in understanding the contributions of the auditory forebrain to hearing, sound localization, communication, emotive behavior, and cognition. The Auditory Cortex covers the latest knowledge about the auditory forebrain, including the auditory cortex as well as the medial geniculate body in the thalamus. This book will cover all important aspects of the auditory forebrain organization and function, integrating the auditory thalamus and cortex into a smooth, coherent whole. Volume One covers basic auditory neuroscience. It complements The Auditory Cortex, Volume 2: Integrative Neuroscience, which takes a more applied/clinical perspective.

Hearing and communication present a variety of challenges to the nervous system. To be heard and understood, a communication signal must be transformed from a time-varying acoustic waveform to a perceptual representation to an even more abstract representation that integrates memory stores with semantic/referential information. Finally, this complex, abstract representation must be interpreted to form categorical decisions that guide behavior. Did I hear the stimulus? From where and whom did it come? What does it tell me? How can I use this information to plan an action? All of these issues and questions underlie auditory cognition. Since the early 1990s, there has been a re-birth of studies that test the neural correlates of auditory cognition with a unique emphasis on the use of awake, behaving animals as model. Continuing today, how and where in the brain neural correlates of auditory cognition are formed is an intensive and active area of research. Importantly, our understanding of the role that the cortex plays in hearing has the potential to impact the next generation of cochlear- and brainstem-auditory implants and consequently help those with hearing impairments. Thus, it is timely to produce a volume that brings together this exciting literature on the neural correlates of auditory cognition. This volume compliments and extends many recent SHAR volumes such as Sound Source Localization (2005) Auditory Perception of Sound Sources (2007), and Human Auditory Cortex (2010). For example, in many of these volumes, similar issues are discussed such as auditory-object identification and perception with different emphases: in Auditory Perception of Sound Sources, authors discuss the underlying psychophysics/behavior, whereas in the Human Auditory Cortex, fMRI data are presented. The unique contribution of the proposed volume is that the authors will integrate both of these factors to highlight the neural correlates of cognition/behavior. Moreover, unlike other these other volumes, the neurophysiological data will emphasize the exquisite spatial and temporal resolution of single-neuron [as opposed to more coarse fMRI or MEG data] responses in order to reveal the elegant representations and computations used by the nervous system.

This volume is a record of the proceedings of a festspiel held to honor Jozef F. Zwislocki for his outstanding contributions to science and to Syracuse University. His contributions to the knowledge of the hydromechanical, neurophysiological, and perceptual mechanisms of the auditory system are truly monumental. In addition, his contributions to the comprehension of the mammalian auditory system include not only landmark ideas, but also many of the experimental findings in psychoacoustics and peripheral auditory physiology that constitute the database which has provided a springboard for research in laboratories throughout the world. His efforts to link physics, biology, and psychophysics to create a basis for our understanding of the nervous system have had an influence that extends far beyond the science of acoustics. Although the purpose of this conference was to recognize the many achievements of Professor Zwislocki, the spirit of the participants was to honor him in a manner that best characterized his lifetime dedication to research, that is, to report the results of their own work. Consequently, this volume is first and foremost a compilation of scientific papers in the area of sensory research. Some are reports of recent experiments and some present an overview of research efforts extending from the past up to ongoing work. His influence can be recognized in all of the contributions and some explicitly describe the ties between their own work and the germinal ideas planted by him. This volume, in reflecting the rapid progress being made in sensory science and written by those who are making it, is a fitting tribute to Zwislocki, who always stood at the forefront of his science.