Michelle Moerel, PhD | Combining computational modeling with ultra-high field fMRI to explore the human auditory pathway

Guest Lecture

  • Date: Apr 25, 2017
  • Time: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Michelle Moerel, PhD
  • Location: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
  • Room: Wilhelm Wundt Room (A400)
  • Host: Max Planck Research Group "Neural Mechanisms of Human Communication"
The auditory pathway includes many pivotal structures that are small in size. Their exploration in the human therefore has been severely restricted by the limited spatial resolution of non-invasive measurement techniques. Here we combine ultra-high field (UHF) fMRI at 7 Tesla with computational modeling to investigate these small auditory structures. First, we explore tuning to sound features, such as frequency, in the inferior colliculus (IC) and the medial geniculate body (MGB) of the thalamus. We show that frequency tuning is organized in one tonotopic gradient in the IC, whereas two tonotopic maps characterize the MGB reflecting two MGB subdivisions. Second, we exploit the spatial resolution of ultra-high field fMRI to investigate responses to sounds at deep, middle and superficial cortical depths of the human auditory cortex. We observe that while neuronal populations in deep and middle PAC layers are independently tuned to sound features, neuronal populations in superficial PAC encode specific feature combinations (‘joint feature tuning’). These results suggest that a relevant transformation in sound processing takes place between middle and superficial PAC, possibly serving as a first computational step towards sound abstraction.
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