Functional organization of non-primary auditory cortex

功能特化是大脑皮层的一个共同特征。在全球范围内，区域被专门用于执行特定的感觉或运动功能。在人类、猴子和猫的纹外视皮层中，已经确定了进一步专门化的空间、运动和模式处理的区域。在听觉皮质内，这种功能特化或“分工”的行为相关性在很大程度上是未知的。这项拟议工作的长期目标是阐明听觉皮质内的行为“分工”，并确定不同的听觉领域对听觉中介行为的相对贡献。这些结果与对潜在大脑连接的研究相结合，将提供证据或驳斥哪个层次或网络理论最好地解释听觉皮质的处理。在本研究中，我们将结合一系列的行为测试、可逆失活和电生理记录，来剖析听觉皮质的功能计划。 在拟议的实验中，我们将强调听觉皮质中的模式和时间处理。我们假设，所提出的任务和刺激的使用将在行为和电生理上揭示，沿着背腹平面的区域具有类似于纹外视皮层腹侧加工流的日益增强的刺激特异性。总体而言，我们将制作听觉皮质每个区域对声学模式和时间分辨做出的多个但独特的神经贡献的第一个概要。除了将进行的广泛的行为项目外，我们还将使用类似的刺激来唤起个别皮质区域的反应，同时我们将可逆地停用侧翼区域，以确定非初级听觉皮质不同区域对彼此的功能贡献。这些电生理学研究将直接解决非初级听觉皮质中可能存在的皮质加工流问题。

Functional specialization is a common characteristic of the cerebral cortex. Globally, regions are specialized to perform particular sensory or motor functions. Within extrastriate visual cortex of humans, monkeys and cats, areas have been identified that are further specialized for spatial, motion, and pattern processing. The behavioral correlate for such functional specializations, or a "division of labor", within auditory cortex is largely unknown. The long-term goal of the proposed work is to elucidate the behavioral "division of labor" within auditory cortex and determine the relative contributions that the different auditory fields make to acoustically-mediated behaviors. These results, when combined with investigations of underlying cerebral connections, will provide evidence for, or refute, which hierarchical or network theories best explain processing in auditory cortex. In the present study, we will combine a battery of behavioral tests, reversible deactivation, and electrophysiological recording, to dissect the functional plan of auditory cortex. In the proposed experiments we will emphasize pattern and temporal processing in auditory cortex. We hypothesize that the use of the proposed tasks and stimuli will reveal, both behaviorally and electrophysiologically, that areas along the dorso-ventral plane have increasing stimulus specificity similar to that of the ventral processing stream in extrastriate visual cortex. Overall, we will produce the first compendium of the multiple, yet unique, combinations of neural contributions each region of auditory cortex makes to acoustic pattern and temporal discriminations. In addition to the extensive behavioural projects to be undertaken, we will also use similar stimuli to evoke responses in individual cortical areas while we reversibly deactivate flanking areas to determine the functional contributions that different regions of non-primary auditory cortex make to one another. These electrophysiological investigations will directly address the possible existence of cortical processing streams in non-primary auditory cortex.