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The Auditory Cortex: The Final Frontier

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Computational Models of the Auditory System

Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 35))

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Abstract

The auditory cortex consists of 10–15 interconnected areas or fields whose neurons receive a modest input from the thalamus and about 10–100 times more input from other auditory cortical areas and nonauditory cortical fields from the same and contralateral hemisphere. Modeling this conglomerate as a black box functional network model is potentially doable (Stephan et al. 2000), but that does not give us much insight into how individual cortical areas compute and the nature of the output from those areas to cognitive and motor systems. At the other end of the scale, there is the challenge of realistic modeling of the canonical cortical neural network that is typically based on primary visual cortex (Martin 2002). When implemented for primary auditory cortical columns this needs detailed modeling of 10–15 different cell types (Watts and Thomson 2005) with different ion channels and neural transmitter and modulatory systems; even such minimal circuits present daunting complexities. The main problem for the neuroscientist is of course to identify the computational problem that the auditory cortex has to solve. This chapter reviews the basic structural and functional elements for such models on the basis of what is currently known about auditory cortical function and processing. The emphasis here is on vocalizations, speech, and music. Some promising analytic and modeling approaches that have been proposed recently are discussed in light of two views of cortical function: as an information processing system and as a representational system.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, a Canadian Institutes of Health – New Emerging Team grant, and the Campbell McLaurin Chair for Hearing Deficiencies.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4

    Jos J. Eggermont

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  1. Jos J. Eggermont
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Correspondence to Jos J. Eggermont .

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  1. University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO43SQ, United Kingdom

    Ray Meddis

  2. Inst. Neurociencias de Castilla y León, Universidad de Salamanca, Av. Alfonso X El Sabio s/n, Salamanca, 37007, Spain

    Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda

  3. Parmly Hearing Institute, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, 60626, USA

    Richard R. Fay

  4. Dept. Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742-4415, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

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Eggermont, J.J. (2010). The Auditory Cortex: The Final Frontier. In: Meddis, R., Lopez-Poveda, E., Fay, R., Popper, A. (eds) Computational Models of the Auditory System. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 35. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5934-8_5

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