Linear processing of spatial cues in primary auditory cortex

Jan W. H. Schnupp (), Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel and Andrew J. King
Additional contact information
Jan W. H. Schnupp: University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford
Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel: University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford
Andrew J. King: University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford

Nature, 2001, vol. 414, issue 6860, 200-204

Abstract: Abstract To determine the direction of a sound source in space, animals must process a variety of auditory spatial cues, including interaural level and time differences, as well as changes in the sound spectrum caused by the direction-dependent filtering of sound by the outer ear1. Behavioural deficits observed when primary auditory cortex (A1) is damaged have led to the widespread view that A1 may have an essential role in this complex computational task2,3,4,5. Here we show, however, that the spatial selectivity exhibited by the large majority of A1 neurons is well predicted by a simple linear model, which assumes that neurons additively integrate sound levels in each frequency band and ear. The success of this linear model is surprising, given that computing sound source direction is a necessarily nonlinear operation6,7,8,9. However, because linear operations preserve information, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that A1 may also form a gateway to higher, more specialized cortical areas10,11.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35102568 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:414:y:2001:i:6860:d:10.1038_35102568

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35102568

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().