Mechanisms and streams for processing of “what” and “where” in auditory cortex

TLDR

The authors examined rhesus monkey auditory cortex with complex sounds and found that lateral belt neurons integrate spectral and temporal features nonlinearly, with spatial tuning varying across belt areas, indicating distinct processing streams. They discovered that lateral belt neurons are tuned to frequency, bandwidth, FM sweep rate and direction, and species‑specific calls, with the anterolateral area preferring calls and the caudolateral area showing greater spatial selectivity, supporting a dual spatial and pattern/object processing stream in primate and human auditory cortex.

Abstract

The functional specialization and hierarchical organization of multiple areas in rhesus monkey auditory cortex were examined with various types of complex sounds. Neurons in the lateral belt areas of the superior temporal gyrus were tuned to the best center frequency and bandwidth of band-passed noise bursts. They were also selective for the rate and direction of linear frequency modulated sweeps. Many neurons showed a preference for a limited number of species-specific vocalizations (“monkey calls”). These response selectivities can be explained by nonlinear spectral and temporal integration mechanisms. In a separate series of experiments, monkey calls were presented at different spatial locations, and the tuning of lateral belt neurons to monkey calls and spatial location was determined. Of the three belt areas the anterolateral area shows the highest degree of specificity for monkey calls, whereas neurons in the caudolateral area display the greatest spatial selectivity. We conclude that the cortical auditory system of primates is divided into at least two processing streams, a spatial stream that originates in the caudal part of the superior temporal gyrus and projects to the parietal cortex, and a pattern or object stream originating in the more anterior portions of the lateral belt. A similar division of labor can be seen in human auditory cortex by using functional neuroimaging.