Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Using Multisensory Integration to Understand the Human Auditory Cortex

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Multisensory Processes

Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 68))

Abstract

Accurate and meaningful parcellation of the human cortex is an essential endeavor to facilitate the collective understanding of brain functions across sensory and cognitive domains. Unlike in the visual cortex, the details of anatomical and functional mapping associated with the earliest stages of auditory processing in the cortex are still a topic of active debate. Interestingly, aspects of multisensory processing may provide a unique window to meaningfully subdivide the auditory sensory areas by exploring different functional properties other than the traditional tonotopic approach. In this chapter, a tour of the auditory cortical areas is first provided, starting from its core area, Heschl’s gyrus, then moving onto surrounding areas. Evidence from different sources, including postmortem studies of the human auditory cortex, resting-state functional connectivity derived from the Human Connectome Project, and electrocorticographic studies, is presented to better understand how different subdivisions of the human auditory cortex and its surrounding areas are involved in auditory and multisensory processing. The chapter concludes with the remaining challenges to account for individual variability in functional anatomy, particularly pertaining to multisensory processing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Beauchamp, M. S. (2005). Statistical criteria in FMRI studies of multisensory integration. Neuroinformatics, 3(2), 93–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, M. S., Lee, K. E., Argall, B. D., & Martin, A. (2004a). Integration of auditory and visual information about objects in superior temporal sulcus. Neuron, 41(5), 809–823.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, M. S., Argall, B. D., Bodurka, J., Duyn, J. H., & Martin, A. (2004b). Unraveling multisensory integration: Patchy organization within human STS multisensory cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 7(11), 1190–1192.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, M. S., Yasar, N. E., Kishan, N., & Ro, T. (2007). Human MST but not MT responds to tactile stimulation. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27(31), 8261–8267.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brodmann, K. (1994). Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde [Brodmann’s Localization in the Cerebral Cortex] (L. J. Garey, Trans.) Leipzig: Barth. London: Smith Gordon (Original work published in 1909).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, C., Desimone, R., & Gross, C. G. (1981). Visual properties of neurons in a polysensory area in superior temporal sulcus of the macaque. Journal of Neurophysiology, 46(2), 369–384.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eickhoff, S. B., Bzdok, D., Laird, A. R., Kurth, F., & Fox, P. T. (2012). Activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis revisited. NeuroImage, 59(3), 2349–2361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Felleman, D. J., & Van Essen, D. C. (1991). Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 1(1), 1–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghazanfar, A. A., & Schroeder, C. E. (2006). Is neocortex essentially multisensory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(6), 278–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glasser, M. F., & Van Essen, D. C. (2011). Mapping human cortical areas in vivo based on myelin content as revealed by T1- and T2-weighted MRI. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(32), 11597–11616.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Glasser, M. F., Goyal, M. S., Preuss, T. M., Raichle, M. E., & Van Essen, D. C. (2014). Trends and properties of human cerebral cortex: Correlations with cortical myelin content. NeuroImage, 93, 165–175.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Glasser, M. F., Coalson, T. S., Robinson, E. C., Hacker, C. D., Harwell, J., Yacoub, E., Ugurbil, K., Andersson, J., Beckmann, C. F., Jenkinson, M., & Smith, S. M. (2016). A multi-modal parcellation of human cerebral cortex. Nature, 536(7), 171–178.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez-Castillo, J., Saad, Z. S., Handwerker, D. A., Inati, S. J., Brenowitz, N., & Bandettini, P. A. (2012). Whole-brain, time-locked activation with simple tasks revealed using massive averaging and model-free analysis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(14), 5487–5492.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grefkes, C., & Fink, G. R. (2005). The functional organization of the intraparietal sulcus in humans and monkeys. Journal of Anatomy, 207(1), 3–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, M. C., Franzen, O., McGlone, F., Essick, G., Dancer, C., & Pardo, J. V. (2002). Tactile motion activates the human middle temporal/V5 (MT/V5) complex. European Journal of Neuroscience, 16(5), 957–964.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huk, A. C., Dougherty, R. F., & Heeger, D. J. (2002). Retinotopy and functional subdivision of human areas MT and MST. The Journal of Neuroscience, 22(16), 7195–7205.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, F., Beauchamp, M. S., & Fine, I. (2015). Re-examining overlap between tactile and visual motion responses within hMT+ and STS. NeuroImage, 119, 187–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, F., Stecker, G. C., Boynton, G. M., & Fine, I. (2016). Early blindness results in developmental plasticity for auditory motion processing within auditory and occipital cortex. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 324.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kaas, J. H., Hackett, T. A., & Tramo, M. J. (1999). Auditory processing in primate cerebral cortex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 9(2), 164–170.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Matteau, I., Kupers, R., Ricciardi, E., Pietrini, P., & Ptito, M. (2010). Beyond visual, aural and haptic movement perception: hMT+ is activated by electrotactile motion stimulation of the tongue in sighted and in congenitally blind individuals. Brain Research Bulletin, 82(5–6), 264–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moerel, M., De Martino, F., & Formisano, E. (2014). An anatomical and functional topography of human auditory cortical areas. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 8, 225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morosan, P., Schleicher, A., Amunts, K., & Zilles, K. (2005). Multimodal architectonic mapping of human superior temporal gyrus. Anatomy and Embryology, 210(5–6), 401–406.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ozker, M., Schepers, I. M., Magnotti, J. F., Yoshor, D., & Beauchamp, M. S. (2017). A double dissociation between anterior and posterior superior temporal gyrus for processing audiovisual speech demonstrated by electrocorticography. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(6), 1044–1060.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Leone, A., & Hamilton, R. (2001). The metamodal organization of the brain. Progress in Brain Research, 134, 427–445.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ricciardi, E., Vanello, N., Sani, L., Gentili, C., Scilingo, E. P., Landini, L., Guazzelli, M., Bicchi, A., Haxby, J. V., & Pietrini, P. (2007). The effect of visual experience on the development of functional architecture in hMT+. Cerebral Cortex, 17(12), 2933–2939.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saenz, M., Lewis, L. B., Huth, A. G., Fine, I., & Koch, C. (2008). Visual motion area MT+/V5 responds to auditory motion in human sight-recovery subjects. The Journal of Neuroscience, 28(20), 5141–5148.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Snyder, L. H., Batista, A. P., & Andersen, R. A. (1997). Coding of intention in the posterior parietal cortex. Nature, 386(6621), 167–170.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, B. E., & Meredith, M. A. (1993). The merging of the senses. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Summers, I. R., Francis, S. T., Bowtell, R. W., McGlone, F. P., & Clemence, M. (2009). A functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging investigation of cortical activation from moving vibrotactile stimuli on the fingertip. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125(2), 1033–1039.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi, K., Gu, Y., May, P. J., Newlands, S. D., Deangelis, G. C., & Angelaki, D. E. (2007). Multimodal coding of three-dimensional rotation and translation in area MSTd: Comparison of visual and vestibular selectivity. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27(36), 9742–9756.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Essen, D. C., Smith, S. M., Barch, D. M., Behrens, T. E. J., Yacoub, E., Ugurbil, K., & Wu-Minn HCP Consortium. (2013). The WU-Minn Human Connectome Project: An overview. NeuroImage, 80, 62–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Kemenade, B. M., Seymour, K., Wacker, E., Spitzer, B., Blankenburg, F., & Sterzer, P. (2014). Tactile and visual motion direction processing in hMT+/V5. NeuroImage, 84, 420–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, M. T., Ramachandran, R., & Stein, B. E. (2004). A revised view of sensory cortical parcellation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(7), 2167–2172.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery and Core for Advanced MRI, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Michael S. Beauchamp

Authors
  1. Michael S. Beauchamp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael S. Beauchamp .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Adrian K. C. Lee

  2. Departments of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Psychiatry, Psychology and Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Mark T. Wallace

  3. Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA, USA

    Allison B. Coffin

  4. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

  5. Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Richard R. Fay

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Beauchamp, M.S. (2019). Using Multisensory Integration to Understand the Human Auditory Cortex. In: Lee, A., Wallace, M., Coffin, A., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Multisensory Processes. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 68. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10461-0_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation