Human Auditory Cortex Physiology

描述（由申请人提供）：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通过人类听觉皮层内的神经活动来表示知之甚少。我们的研究目标是了解人类大脑皮层中参与声音处理的区域的功能组织和连接，并检查听觉语音刺激如何在这些区域中表示。这些实验涉及结合解剖和功能性MRI方法与直接皮层电生理记录和电刺激技术在清醒的，行为的人类受试者进行临床评价的难治性癫痫。我们将通过测试一系列具体的假设来实现我们的目标：（1）听觉皮层场的位置和功能特性;（2）对语音刺激的诱发反应在这些场中的表现和转换方式;以及（3）这些场之间的功能连接和信息流模式。这些目标是由一个经验丰富的多学科团队使用非侵入性MRI和直接调查方法的组合来追求的，以便在相同的实验对象中收集人体生理和解剖数据的互补集。这些数据无法单独使用非侵入性方法获得，这种多模式实验方法旨在克服目前阻碍该领域研究进展的重大障碍。据我们所知，如果我们的目标得以实现，所得到的数据将是第一个直接展示声学和语音语音信息是如何在多个生理定义的听觉领域的上级颞平面和横向上级颞回的神经活动，作为受试者从事心理物理语音处理任务。我们追求这些研究目标，相信正常人类听觉系统的基本结构和功能的知识是必不可少的理解机制，听力，言语和语言的各个方面的损害。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Speech sounds are the most important sounds that we hear; yet little is known about how these stimuli are represented by neural activity 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 speech stimuli are represented in these regions. These experiments involve combining anatomical and functional MRI methods with direct cortical electrophysiological recordings and electrical stimulation techniques in awake, behaving 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; and (3) the functional connections and patterns of information flow between these fields. These objectives are pursued by an experienced multidisciplinary team using combinations of non-invasive MRI and direct investigative methods in order to gather complementary sets of human physiological and anatomical data in the same experimental subjects. These data cannot be obtained using non-invasive methods alone, and this multi-modal experimental approach is designed to overcome significant barriers that currently impede research progress in this field. To our knowledge, if our objectives are achieved, the resulting data will be the first of its kind demonstrating directly how acoustic and phonetic speech information is represented by neural activity within multiple physiologically-defined auditory fields of the superior temporal plane and lateral superior temporal gyrus as subjects engage in psychophysical speech-processing tasks. We pursue these research 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.