ARE NEURAL OSCILLATIONS THE SUBSTRATE OF AUDITORY GROUPING

Abstract

How are acoustic features that are extracted in remote regions of the auditory system bound together to form a perceptual whole? We consider the evidence for a solution to this so-called binding problem, which proposes that the responses of feature detecting cells are bound together by the synchronisation of oscillatory firing activity. Four models of auditory grouping based on neural oscillators are reviewed, and issues arising from these models are discussed. 1. INTRODUCTION Recent advances in auditory neuroscience support the notion that different properties of acoustic events (such as periodicity, spatial location and spectral shape) are extracted at separate locations in the auditory system [22]. Nonetheless, we perceive auditory events as meaningful wholes, not as parts. In other words, the auditory system is able to bind together features represented in remote neural structures to form perceptual wholes. The mechanism of this binding process is the subject of our paper. Clear...