Human Auditory Cortex Physiology

描述(申请人提供)：人类听觉皮质生理学语音是我们听到的最重要的声音；然而，人们对这些刺激如何在人类听觉皮质中表现知之甚少。我们研究的目标是了解人类大脑皮层中负责声音处理的区域的功能组织和联系，并研究听觉和视觉语音刺激在这些区域是如何呈现的。这些实验包括从清醒的人类受试者大脑皮层直接电生理记录和电刺激，这些受试者正在接受顽固性癫痫的临床评估。我们将通过测试一系列具体的假设来实现我们的目标，这些假设涉及：1)听觉皮层区域的位置和功能特性，2)对语音刺激的诱发反应在这些区域内的表示和转换方式，3)视觉语音信息和竞争背景噪声对这些区域内皮层处理的影响，以及4)这些区域之间的功能联系和信息流模式。这些目标是由一个经验丰富的多学科团队使用直接调查方法来追求的，以便收集补充的人体生理和解剖学数据。由此产生的测量结果不能使用非侵入性技术获得。我们追求这些目标，相信对正常人类听觉系统的基本结构和功能的了解对于理解导致听力、言语和语言各方面损害的机制是必不可少的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Human Auditory Cortex Physiology Speech sounds are the most important sounds that we hear; yet little is known about how these stimuli are represented within human auditory cortex. The goal of our research is to understand the functional organization and connections of those areas of human cerebral cortex that are engaged in sound processing and examine how auditory and visual speech stimuli are represented in these regions. These experiments involve direct electrophysiological recording from, and electrical stimulation of, the cerebral cortex of awake human subjects undergoing clinical evaluation of intractable epilepsy. We will pursue our goals by testing a series of specific hypotheses regarding: 1) the locations and functional properties of auditory cortical fields, 2) the manner in which evoked responses to speech stimuli are represented and transformed within these fields, 3) the influence of visual speech information and competing background noise on cortical processing within these fields, and 4) the functional connections and patterns of information flow between these fields. These objectives are pursued by an experienced multidisciplinary team using direct investigative methods in order to gather complimentary sets of human physiological and anatomical data. The resulting measurements cannot be obtained using non-invasive techniques. We pursue these objectives believing that knowledge of the fundamental structure and function of the normal human auditory system is essential to understanding mechanism that underlie impairment of all aspects of hearing, speech, and language.