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Distributed Cortical Representation of Sound Locations

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Perspectives on Auditory Research

Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 50))

Abstract

“Location” is a fundamental attribute of a sound source, and normal auditory cortical function is well known to be essential for accurate sound localization. Nevertheless, it has proven to be a challenge to account for perceptual localization abilities in terms of auditory cortical activity. This chapter reviews the steps, and missteps, leading to a present view of cortical location representation. Topics include (1) spatial receptive fields, or lack thereof, of neurons in several auditory fields; (2) evidence contrary to the hypothesis that auditory space is represented as a point-to-point cortical map; (3) panoramic location coding by single cortical neurons and the implied highly distributed representations of single source locations; (4) two- and three-channel models of spatial representation; (5) cortical responses that parallel some oddities of auditory spatial perception; (6) specialization for spatial representation among cortical fields; and (7) task-dependent dynamics of cortical spatial tuning. The chapter concludes by pointing out how much more there is to spatial hearing that just localization, and raises some thoughts about the possible role of auditory cortex in hearing in complex auditory scenes.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to my talented collaborators in this research, especially to my mentors, Michael Merzenich, Eric Knudsen, and David Green. My research is funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Otolaryngology, Neurobiology & Behavior, Cognitive Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697-5310, USA

    John C. Middlebrooks

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  1. John C. Middlebrooks
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Correspondence to John C. Middlebrooks .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

  2. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard R. Fay

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Middlebrooks, J.C. (2014). Distributed Cortical Representation of Sound Locations. In: Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Perspectives on Auditory Research. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 50. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9102-6_20

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