Spatial receptive elds of human auditory cortical neurons revealed by neuromagnetic recordings
Abstract
Previous work on the human auditory cortex has revealed areas specialized in spatial processing but how the neurons in these areas represent the location of a sound source remains unknown. We conducted magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements to reveal the neural code of auditory space implemented by the human cortex. To this end, we used a stimulus-speci c adaptation paradigm where the attenuating effect of a preceding adaptor on the brain responses to a subsequent probe sound is used as a measure of neuronal spatial selectivity. Utilizing both interaural time difference (ITD) cues and realistic spatial sounds we obtained results consistent with a population rate code of horizontal sound source location whereby spatial receptive elds are wide and laterally centered.
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