Frequency-specific modulation of population-level frequency tuning in human auditory cortex.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Under natural circumstances, attention plays an important role in extracting relevant auditory signals from simultaneously present, irrelevant noises. Excitatory and inhibitory neural activity, enhanced by attentional processes, seems to sharpen frequency tuning, contributing to improved auditory performance especially in noisy environments. In the present study, we investigated auditory magnetic fields in humans that were evoked by pure tones embedded in band-eliminated noises during two different stimulus sequencing conditions (constant vs. random) under auditory focused attention by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG).

Results

In total, we used identical auditory stimuli between conditions, but presented them in a different order, thereby manipulating the neu

SUBMITTER: Okamoto H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2637881 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature