Cortical lesions and auditory discrimination.

Elliott, Donald N.; Trahiotis, Constantine

doi:10.1037/h0032281

Cited by 42 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Still, few analyses of lesion effects have combined measurements of frequency discrimination at psychophysical thresholds and precise definition of pathoanatomical correlates. Moreover, a number of methodological issues hamper straightforward interpretations of lesion effects in cats, the principal source of animal data (for review, see Elliot and Trahiotis 1972).In the present paper, we provide psychophysical and anatomical evidence supporting the hypothesis that sharp frequency tuning in auditory cortex is functionally relevant to fine-grained frequency processing. …”

supporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional Role of Auditory Cortex in Frequency Processing and Pitch Perception

Tramo

Shah

Braida

2002

Journal of Neurophysiology

112

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. Microelectrode studies in nonhuman primates and other mammals have demonstrated that many neurons in auditory cortex are excited by pure tone stimulation only when the tone's frequency lies within a narrow range of the audible spectrum. However, the effects of auditory cortex lesions in animals and humans have been interpreted as evidence against the notion that neuronal frequency selectivity is functionally relevant to frequency discrimination. Here we report psychophysical and anatomical evidence in favor of the hypothesis that fine-grained frequency resolution at the perceptual level relies on neuronal frequency selectivity in auditory cortex. An adaptive procedure was used to measure difference thresholds for pure tone frequency discrimination in five humans with focal brain lesions and eight normal controls. Only the patient with bilateral lesions of primary auditory cortex and surrounding areas showed markedly elevated frequency difference thresholds: Weber fractions for frequency direction discrimination ("higher"-"lower" pitch judgments) were about eightfold higher than Weber fractions measured in patients with unilateral lesions of auditory cortex, auditory midbrain, or dorsolateral frontal cortex; Weber fractions for frequency change discrimination ("same"-"different" pitch judgments) were about seven times higher. In contrast, pure-tone detection thresholds, difference thresholds for pure tone duration discrimination centered at 500 ms, difference thresholds for vibrotactile intensity discrimination, and judgments of visual line orientation were within normal limits or only mildly impaired following bilateral auditory cortex lesions. In light of current knowledge about the physiology and anatomy of primate auditory cortex and a review of previous lesion studies, we interpret the present results as evidence that fine-grained frequency processing at the perceptual level relies on the integrity of finely tuned neurons in auditory cortex. I N T R O D U C T I O NMany neurons in mammalian auditory cortex respond selectively to pure tone frequencies over a narrow range of the audible spectrum, and several anatomical subdivisions of auditory cortex are organized topographically with respect to frequency selectivity (for reviews, see Aitkin et al. 1984;Brugge and Reale 1985;Clarey et al. 1992;de Ribaupierre 1997;Kaas et al. 1999;Phillips et al. 1991;Schreiner 1992). On theoretical grounds, it would seem reasonable to propose that neuronal frequency selectivity at the physiological level contributes to frequency discrimination at the perceptual level. However, the functional effects of auditory cortex lesions in animals and humans have been interpreted as evidence against this hypothesis. In their authoritative review of a large number of lesion studies in the Handbook of Sensory Physiology, Neff et al. (1975) concluded, "Frequency discrimination may be learned or relearned after bilateral lesions involving all or nearly all of primary auditory cortex in animals such as the cat and monkey and in human patient...

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supporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Role of Auditory Cortex in Frequency Processing and Pitch Perception

Tramo

Shah

Braida

2002

Journal of Neurophysiology

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast, bilateral lesions of the same areas have considerable effects on the execution of the same tasks (Elliott & Trahiotis 1972;Iversen & Mishkin 1973;Colombo et al 1990). Some lesion experiments have directly investigated the neural basis of the auditory processing of complex sounds such as species-specific vocalizations.…”

Section: Supporting Evidence For Bilaterality: Lesions In Monkeys Andmentioning

confidence: 95%

Pure word deafness and the bilateral processing of the speech code

Poeppel¹

2001

Cognitive Science

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The analysis of pure word deafness (PWD) suggests that speech perception, construed as the integration of acoustic information to yield representations that enter into the linguistic computational system, (i) is separable in a modular sense from other aspects of auditory cognition and (ii) is mediated by the posterior superior temporal cortex in both hemispheres. PWD data are consistent with neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence in a manner that suggests that the speech code is analyzed bilaterally. The typical lateralization associated with language processing is a property of the computational system that acts beyond the analysis of the input signal. The hypothesis of the bilateral mediation of the speech code does not imply that both sides execute the same computation. It is proposed that the speech signal is asymmetrically analyzed in the time domain, with left-hemisphere mechanisms preferentially extracting information over shorter (25-50 ms) temporal integration windows and right mechanisms over longer (150 -250 ms) windows.

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“…For instance, cats can be trained to discriminate sounds on the basis of the pitch of the missing fundamental (Heffner and Whitfield, 1976). Lesions of auditory cortex impair the cat's ability to derive the pitch of the missing fundamental (Whitfield, 1980) but spare the ability to make simple frequency discrimination (Elliott and Trahiotis, 1972). Thus sensitivity to complex pitch may well differ from sensitivity to frequency differences.…”

Section: A Pitch Perception In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of school-aged children to pitch-related cues

Deroche

Zion

Schurman

et al. 2012

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Two experiments investigated the ability of 17 school-aged children to process purely temporal and spectro-temporal cues that signal changes in pitch. Percentage correct was measured for the discrimination of sinusoidal amplitude modulation rate (AMR) of broadband noise in experiment 1 and for the discrimination of fundamental frequency (F0) of broadband sine-phase harmonic complexes in experiment 2. The reference AMR was 100 Hz as was the reference F0. A child-friendly interface helped listeners to remain attentive to the task. Data were fitted using a maximum-likelihood technique that extracted threshold, slope, and lapse rate. All thresholds were subsequently standardized to a common d 0 value equal to 0.77. There were relatively large individual differences across listeners: eight had relatively adult-like thresholds in both tasks and nine had higher thresholds. However, these individual differences did not vary systematically with age, over the span of 6-16 yr. Thresholds were correlated across the two tasks and were about nine times finer for F0 discrimination than for AMR discrimination as has been previously observed in adults.

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Cortical lesions and auditory discrimination.

Cited by 42 publications

References 37 publications

Functional Role of Auditory Cortex in Frequency Processing and Pitch Perception

Functional Role of Auditory Cortex in Frequency Processing and Pitch Perception

Pure word deafness and the bilateral processing of the speech code

Sensitivity of school-aged children to pitch-related cues

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