Auditory Cortex News and Research

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The auditory cortex is the region of the brain that is responsible for processing of auditory (sound) information. The primary auditory cortex is located in the temporal lobe. There are additional areas of the human cerebral cortex that are involved in processing sound, in the frontal and parietal lobes.

Auditory processing disorder diagnosis: an interview with Dr Doris-Eva Bamiou, UCL Ear Institute

It is a listening or hearing disorder, which is due to the brain’s defective analysis of sounds, so that individuals who are affected with this disorder cannot make sense of what they hear.

26 Nov 2013

Neuroscientist receives CAREER grant to research on auditory processing and sound localization

Twenty years ago Khaleel A. Razak was an electronics engineering student focused on creating a telephone for hearing-impaired children in Chennai, India. Today he is a neuroscientist at the University of California, Riverside whose research on how the brain processes everyday sounds may lead to therapies for age-related hearing problems and Fragile X Syndrome.

10 Oct 2013

Research: VIP interneurons inhibit activation of other inhibitory neurons in cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex contains two major types of neurons: principal neurons that are excitatory and interneurons that are inhibitory, all interconnected within the same network.

7 Oct 2013

Short-term hearing loss during childhood may lead to persistent hearing deficits

Short-term hearing loss during childhood may lead to persistent hearing deficits, long after basic auditory sensitivity has returned to normal. The processing of sound in the brain is shaped by early experience.

1 Oct 2013

Neurobiologists create specific memories by direct manipulation of brain

By studying how memories are made, UC Irvine neurobiologists created new, specific memories by direct manipulation of the brain, which could prove key to understanding and potentially resolving learning and memory disorders.

11 Sep 2013

Research finding provides blueprint for understanding how the brain communicates with itself

During a normal conversation, your brain is constantly adjusting the volume to soften the sound of your own voice and boost the voices of others in the room.

4 Sep 2013

Researchers find fear can increase or decrease ability to discriminate among sounds depending on context

Anyone who's ever heard a Beethoven sonata or a Beatles song knows how powerfully sound can affect our emotions. But it can work the other way as well - our emotions can actually affect how we hear and process sound.

1 Jul 2013

Study shows brain abnormalities in MTBI patients closely resemble Alzheimer's dementia

The distribution of white matter brain abnormalities in some patients after mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) closely resembles that found in early Alzheimer's dementia, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

18 Jun 2013

Researchers are exploring how healthy people who hear voices can help schizophrenics

How can healthy people who hear voices help schizophrenics? Finding the answer for this is at the centre of research conducted at the University of Bergen. Researchers from the Bergen fMRI Group at the University of Bergen (UiB) are working on how to help schizophrenics, who hear voices. The way they do this is by studying people who also hear voices, but who do not suffer from a mental illness.

27 May 2013

Scientists reveal interaction between the auditory cortex and amygdala

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience and funded by the Wellcome Trust, Newcastle University scientists reveal the interaction between the region of the brain that processes sound, the auditory cortex, and the amygdala, which is active in the processing of negative emotions when we hear unpleasant sounds.

15 Oct 2012

Study demonstrates how nerve stimulation paired with specific experiences can reorganize the brain

UT Dallas researchers recently demonstrated how nerve stimulation paired with specific experiences, such as movements or sounds, can reorganize the brain. This technology could lead to new treatments for stroke, tinnitus, autism and other disorders.

20 Jul 2012

UCSF scientists solve mystery of how selective hearing works

The longstanding mystery of how selective hearing works - how people can tune in to a single speaker while tuning out their crowded, noisy environs - is solved this week in the journal Nature by two scientists from the University of California, San Francisco.

19 Apr 2012

A mind-reading machine could be reality soon

Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have devised a method by which they can hear thoughts. They conducted a small study in which they could predict what people were thinking based on their brain activity.

1 Feb 2012

Cortex plays a key role in fear learning

The study, initiated by the Swiss researchers and published in Nature, constitutes ground-breaking work in exploring emotions in the brain.

12 Dec 2011

New review article: Pitch center does not exist in auditory cortex

The perceptual feature of sound known as pitch is fundamental to human hearing, allowing us to enjoy the melodies and harmonies of music and recognize the inflection of speech. Previous studies have suggested that a particular hotspot in the brain might be responsible for perceiving pitch. However, auditory neuroscientists are still hotly debating whether this "pitch center" actually exists.

30 Nov 2011

Micro-electrical stimulators for spinal cord injuries

A new wireless device to help victims of spinal cord injury is receiving attention in the research community. Mesut Sahin, PhD, associate professor, in the department of biomedical engineering at NJIT, recently has published and presented news of his findings to develop micro-electrical stimulators for individuals with spinal cord injuries.

18 Oct 2011

UC Berkeley scientists offer treatment hope for patients with tinnitus

Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are offering hope to the 10 percent of the population who suffer from tinnitus - a constant, often high-pitched ringing or buzzing in the ears that can be annoying and even maddening, and has no cure.

13 Sep 2011

Study: K-complexes control effects of noise on sleep

During sleep, our perception of the environment decreases. However the extent to which the human brain responds to surrounding noises during sleep remains unclear. In a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from University of Liège used brain imaging to study responses to sounds during sleep.

7 Sep 2011

Age-related declines in hearing may accelerate brain atrophy

A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that declines in hearing ability may accelerate gray mater atrophy in auditory areas of the brain and increase the listening effort necessary for older adults to successfully comprehend speech.

31 Aug 2011

Conference to explore new discoveries about origins, diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus

University at Buffalo research showing that a new drug that eliminated tinnitus with a single dose in animal models is among the advances that will be presented at the Fifth Tinnitus Research Initiative Conference, "The Neuroscience of Tinnitus," sponsored by UB's Center for Hearing and Deafness Aug. 19-21 in Grand Island, N.Y.

11 Aug 2011