Imaging subcortical auditory activity in humans

A. R. Guimaraes, J. R. Melcher, T. M. Talavage, J. R. Baker, P. Ledden, B. R. Rosen, N. Y.S. Kiang, B. C. Fullerton, R. M. Weisskoff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

188 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is a lack of physiological data pertaining to how listening humans process auditory information. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided some data for the auditory cortex in awake humans, but there is still a paucity of comparable data for subcortical auditory areas where the early stages of processing take place, as amply demonstrated by single-unit studies in animals. It is unclear why fMRI has been unsuccessful in imaging auditory brain-stem activity, but one problem may be cardiac-related, pulsatile brain-stem motion. To examine this, a method eliminating such motion (using cardiac gating) was applied to map sound-related activity in the auditory cortices and inferior colliculi in the brain stem. Activation in both the colliculi and cortex became more discernible when gating was used. In contrast with the cortex, the improvement in the colliculi resulted from a reduction in signal variability, rather than from an increase in percent signal change. This reduction is consistent with the hypothesis that motion or pulsatile flow is a major factor in brain-stem imaging. The way now seems clear to studying activity throughout the human auditory pathway in listening humans.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)33-41
Number of pages9
JournalHuman Brain Mapping
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Anatomy
  • Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
  • Neurology
  • Clinical Neurology

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