TY - JOUR
T1 - Neurons and objects
T2 - The case of auditory cortex
AU - Nelken, Israel
AU - Bar-Yosef, Omer
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Sounds are encoded into electrical activity in the inner ear, where they are represented (roughly) as patterns of energy in narrow frequency bands. However, sounds are perceived in terms of their high-order properties. It is generally believed that this transformation is performed along the auditory hierarchy, with low-level physical cues computed at early stages of the auditory system and high-level abstract qualities at high-order cortical areas. The functional position of primary auditory cortex (A1) in this scheme is unclear - is it quotidnearlyquotidn, encoding physical cues, or is it quotidnlatequotidn, already encoding abstract qualities? Here we argue that neurons in cat A1 show sensitivity to high-level features of sounds. In particular, these neurons may already show sensitivity to quotidnauditory objectsquotidn. The evidence for this claim comes from studies in which individual sounds are presented singly and in mixtures. Many neurons in cat A1 respond to mixtures in the same way they respond to one of the individual components of the mixture, and in many cases neurons may respond to a low-level component of the mixture rather than to the acoustically dominant one, even though the same neurons respond to the acoustically-dominant component when presented alone.
AB - Sounds are encoded into electrical activity in the inner ear, where they are represented (roughly) as patterns of energy in narrow frequency bands. However, sounds are perceived in terms of their high-order properties. It is generally believed that this transformation is performed along the auditory hierarchy, with low-level physical cues computed at early stages of the auditory system and high-level abstract qualities at high-order cortical areas. The functional position of primary auditory cortex (A1) in this scheme is unclear - is it quotidnearlyquotidn, encoding physical cues, or is it quotidnlatequotidn, already encoding abstract qualities? Here we argue that neurons in cat A1 show sensitivity to high-level features of sounds. In particular, these neurons may already show sensitivity to quotidnauditory objectsquotidn. The evidence for this claim comes from studies in which individual sounds are presented singly and in mixtures. Many neurons in cat A1 respond to mixtures in the same way they respond to one of the individual components of the mixture, and in many cases neurons may respond to a low-level component of the mixture rather than to the acoustically dominant one, even though the same neurons respond to the acoustically-dominant component when presented alone.
KW - Auditory cortex
KW - Auditory objects
KW - Cats
KW - Complex sounds
KW - Electrophysiology
KW - Single neurons
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=60849125887&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/neuro.01.009.2008
DO - 10.3389/neuro.01.009.2008
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AN - SCOPUS:60849125887
SN - 1662-4548
VL - 2
SP - 107
EP - 113
JO - Frontiers in Neuroscience
JF - Frontiers in Neuroscience
IS - JUL
ER -