Auditory cortical responses in the cat to sounds that produce spatial illusions

被引:20
|
作者
Xu, L [1 ]
Furukawa, S [1 ]
Middlebrooks, JC [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Michigan, Kresge Hearing Res Inst, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1038/21424
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Humans and cats can localize a sound source accurately if its spectrum is fairly broad and flat(1-3), as is typical of most natural sounds. However, if sounds are filtered to reduce the width of the spectrum, they result:in illusions of sources that are very different from the actual locations, particularly in the up/down and front/back dimensions(4-6). Such illusions reveal that the auditory system relies on specific characteristics of sound spectra to obtain cues for localization(7). In the-auditory cortex of cats, temporal firing patterns of neurons can signal the locations of broad-band sounds(8-9). Here we show that such spike patterns systematically mislocalize sounds that have been passed through a narrow-band filter. Both correct and incorrect locations signalled by neurons can be predicted quantitatively by a model of spectral processing that also predicts correct and incorrect localization judgements by human listeners(6). Similar cortical mechanisms, if present in humans, could underlie human auditory spatial perception.
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页码:688 / 691
页数:4
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