Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex
Pitch is a defining perceptual property of many real-world sounds, including music and speech. Classically, theories of pitch perception have differentiated between temporal and spectral cues. These cues are rendered distinct by the frequency resolution of the ear, such that some frequencies produce...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Society for Neuroscience
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89140 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-2503 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3853-7885 |
| _version_ | 1826216497465262080 |
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| author | Norman-Haignere, Samuel Victor Kanwisher, Nancy McDermott, Josh |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Norman-Haignere, Samuel Victor Kanwisher, Nancy McDermott, Josh |
| author_sort | Norman-Haignere, Samuel Victor |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Pitch is a defining perceptual property of many real-world sounds, including music and speech. Classically, theories of pitch perception have differentiated between temporal and spectral cues. These cues are rendered distinct by the frequency resolution of the ear, such that some frequencies produce “resolved” peaks of excitation in the cochlea, whereas others are “unresolved,” providing a pitch cue only via their temporal fluctuations. Despite longstanding interest, the neural structures that process pitch, and their relationship to these cues, have remained controversial. Here, using fMRI in humans, we report the following: (1) consistent with previous reports, all subjects exhibited pitch-sensitive cortical regions that responded substantially more to harmonic tones than frequency-matched noise; (2) the response of these regions was mainly driven by spectrally resolved harmonics, although they also exhibited a weak but consistent response to unresolved harmonics relative to noise; (3) the response of pitch-sensitive regions to a parametric manipulation of resolvability tracked psychophysical discrimination thresholds for the same stimuli; and (4) pitch-sensitive regions were localized to specific tonotopic regions of anterior auditory cortex, extending from a low-frequency region of primary auditory cortex into a more anterior and less frequency-selective region of nonprimary auditory cortex. These results demonstrate that cortical pitch responses are located in a stereotyped region of anterior auditory cortex and are predominantly driven by resolved frequency components in a way that mirrors behavior. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:48:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/89140 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:48:20Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Society for Neuroscience |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/891402022-09-29T21:35:48Z Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex Norman-Haignere, Samuel Victor Kanwisher, Nancy McDermott, Josh Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Norman-Haignere, Samuel Victor Kanwisher, Nancy McDermott, Josh Pitch is a defining perceptual property of many real-world sounds, including music and speech. Classically, theories of pitch perception have differentiated between temporal and spectral cues. These cues are rendered distinct by the frequency resolution of the ear, such that some frequencies produce “resolved” peaks of excitation in the cochlea, whereas others are “unresolved,” providing a pitch cue only via their temporal fluctuations. Despite longstanding interest, the neural structures that process pitch, and their relationship to these cues, have remained controversial. Here, using fMRI in humans, we report the following: (1) consistent with previous reports, all subjects exhibited pitch-sensitive cortical regions that responded substantially more to harmonic tones than frequency-matched noise; (2) the response of these regions was mainly driven by spectrally resolved harmonics, although they also exhibited a weak but consistent response to unresolved harmonics relative to noise; (3) the response of pitch-sensitive regions to a parametric manipulation of resolvability tracked psychophysical discrimination thresholds for the same stimuli; and (4) pitch-sensitive regions were localized to specific tonotopic regions of anterior auditory cortex, extending from a low-frequency region of primary auditory cortex into a more anterior and less frequency-selective region of nonprimary auditory cortex. These results demonstrate that cortical pitch responses are located in a stereotyped region of anterior auditory cortex and are predominantly driven by resolved frequency components in a way that mirrors behavior. National Eye Institute (Grant EY13455) James S. McDonnell Foundation (Scholar Award) 2014-09-02T18:52:59Z 2014-09-02T18:52:59Z 2013-12 2013-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0270-6474 1529-2401 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89140 Norman-Haignere, S., N. Kanwisher, and J. H. McDermott. “Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex.” Journal of Neuroscience 33, no. 50 (December 11, 2013): 19451–19469. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-2503 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3853-7885 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2880-13.2013 Journal of Neuroscience Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Society for Neuroscience Society for Neuroscience |
| spellingShingle | Norman-Haignere, Samuel Victor Kanwisher, Nancy McDermott, Josh Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex |
| title | Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex |
| title_full | Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex |
| title_fullStr | Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex |
| title_short | Cortical Pitch Regions in Humans Respond Primarily to Resolved Harmonics and Are Located in Specific Tonotopic Regions of Anterior Auditory Cortex |
| title_sort | cortical pitch regions in humans respond primarily to resolved harmonics and are located in specific tonotopic regions of anterior auditory cortex |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89140 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-2503 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3853-7885 |
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