Enhanced peripheral visual processing in congenitally deaf humans is supported by multiple brain regions, including primary auditory cortex

Using high-field (3 Tesla) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we demonstrate that auditory and somatosensory inputs converge in a subregion of human auditory cortex along the superior temporal gyrus. Further, simultaneous stimulation in both sensory modalities resulted in activity exceeding that predicted by summing the responses to the unisensory inputs, thereby showing multisensory integration in this convergence region. Recently, intracranial recordings in macaque monkeys have shown similar auditory-somatosensory convergence in a subregion of auditory cortex directly caudomedial to primary auditory cortex (area CM). The multisensory region identified in the present investigation may be the human homologue of CM. Our finding of auditory-somatosensory convergence in early auditory cortices contributes to mounting evidence for multisensory integration early in the cortical processing hierarchy, in brain regions that were previously assumed to be unisensory.

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Development of visual category selectivity in ventral visual cortex does not require visual experience

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1612862114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (22) ◽

pp. E4501-E4510 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Job van den Hurk ◽

Marc Van Baelen ◽

Hans P. Op de Beeck

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Auditory Cortex ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Visual Experience ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Extrastriate Cortex ◽

Striking Similarity ◽

Visual Responses ◽

Blind Individuals

To what extent does functional brain organization rely on sensory input? Here, we show that for the penultimate visual-processing region, ventral-temporal cortex (VTC), visual experience is not the origin of its fundamental organizational property, category selectivity. In the fMRI study reported here, we presented 14 congenitally blind participants with face-, body-, scene-, and object-related natural sounds and presented 20 healthy controls with both auditory and visual stimuli from these categories. Using macroanatomical alignment, response mapping, and surface-based multivoxel pattern analysis, we demonstrated that VTC in blind individuals shows robust discriminatory responses elicited by the four categories and that these patterns of activity in blind subjects could successfully predict the visual categories in sighted controls. These findings were confirmed in a subset of blind participants born without eyes and thus deprived from all light perception since conception. The sounds also could be decoded in primary visual and primary auditory cortex, but these regions did not sustain generalization across modalities. Surprisingly, although not as strong as visual responses, selectivity for auditory stimulation in visual cortex was stronger in blind individuals than in controls. The opposite was observed in primary auditory cortex. Overall, we demonstrated a striking similarity in the cortical response layout of VTC in blind individuals and sighted controls, demonstrating that the overall category-selective map in extrastriate cortex develops independently from visual experience.

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FM-selective Networks in Human Auditory Cortex Revealed Using fMRI and Multivariate Pattern Classification

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00254 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 24 (9) ◽

pp. 1896-1907 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

I-Hui Hsieh ◽

Paul Fillmore ◽

Feng Rong ◽

Gregory Hickok ◽

Kourosh Saberi

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Pattern Analysis ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽

Acoustic Feature ◽

Complex Sounds ◽

Human Auditory Cortex ◽

Multivariate Pattern

Frequency modulation (FM) is an acoustic feature of nearly all complex sounds. Directional FM sweeps are especially pervasive in speech, music, animal vocalizations, and other natural sounds. Although the existence of FM-selective cells in the auditory cortex of animals has been documented, evidence in humans remains equivocal. Here we used multivariate pattern analysis to identify cortical selectivity for direction of a multitone FM sweep. This method distinguishes one pattern of neural activity from another within the same ROI, even when overall level of activity is similar, allowing for direct identification of FM-specialized networks. Standard contrast analysis showed that despite robust activity in auditory cortex, no clusters of activity were associated with up versus down sweeps. Multivariate pattern analysis classification, however, identified two brain regions as selective for FM direction, the right primary auditory cortex on the supratemporal plane and the left anterior region of the superior temporal gyrus. These findings are the first to directly demonstrate existence of FM direction selectivity in the human auditory cortex.

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What and How the Deaf Brain Sees

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01425 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (8) ◽

pp. 1091-1109 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Caroline D. C. Alencar ◽

Blake E. Butler ◽

Stephen G. Lomber

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Sensory Modality ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Visual Localization ◽

Vernier Acuity ◽

Anterior Ectosylvian Sulcus ◽

Visual Functions ◽

Auditory Field ◽

The Brain

Over the past decade, there has been an unprecedented level of interest and progress into understanding visual processing in the brain of the deaf. Specifically, when the brain is deprived of input from one sensory modality (such as hearing), it often compensates with supranormal performance in one or more of the intact sensory systems (such as vision). Recent psychophysical, functional imaging, and reversible deactivation studies have converged to define the specific visual abilities that are enhanced in the deaf, as well as the cortical loci that undergo crossmodal plasticity in the deaf and are responsible for mediating these superior visual functions. Examination of these investigations reveals that central visual functions, such as object and facial discrimination, and peripheral visual functions, such as motion detection, visual localization, visuomotor synchronization, and Vernier acuity (measured in the periphery), are specifically enhanced in the deaf, compared with hearing participants. Furthermore, the cortical loci identified to mediate these functions reside in deaf auditory cortex: BA 41, BA 42, and BA 22, in addition to the rostral area, planum temporale, Te3, and temporal voice area in humans; primary auditory cortex, anterior auditory field, dorsal zone of auditory cortex, auditory field of the anterior ectosylvian sulcus, and posterior auditory field in cats; and primary auditory cortex and anterior auditory field in both ferrets and mice. Overall, the findings from these studies show that crossmodal reorganization in auditory cortex of the deaf is responsible for the superior visual abilities of the deaf.

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Visual motion processing recruits regions selective for auditory motion in early deaf individuals

10.1101/2020.11.27.401489 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Stefania Benetti ◽

Joshua Zonca ◽

Ambra Ferrari ◽

Mohamed Rezk ◽

Giuseppe Rabini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Large Scale ◽

Visual Motion ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Motion Processing ◽

Temporal Region ◽

List Type ◽

Auditory Motion ◽

Visual Motion Processing

AbstractIn early deaf individuals, the auditory deprived temporal brain regions become engaged in visual processing. In our study we tested further the hypothesis that intrinsic functional specialization guides the expression of cross-modal responses in the deprived auditory cortex. We used functional MRI to characterize the brain response to horizontal, radial and stochastic visual motion in early deaf and hearing individuals matched for the use of oral or sign language. Visual motion showed enhanced response in the ‘deaf’ mid-lateral planum temporale, a region selective to auditory motion as demonstrated by a separate auditory motion localizer in hearing people. Moreover, multivariate pattern analysis revealed that this reorganized temporal region showed enhanced decoding of motion categories in the deaf group, while visual motion-selective region hMT+/V5 showed reduced decoding when compared to hearing people. Dynamic Causal Modelling revealed that the ‘deaf’ motion-selective temporal region shows a specific increase of its functional interactions with hMT+/V5 and is now part of a large-scale visual motion selective network. In addition, we observed preferential responses to radial, compared to horizontal, visual motion in the ‘deaf’ right superior temporal cortex region that also show preferential response to approaching/receding sounds in the hearing brain. Overall, our results suggest that the early experience of auditory deprivation interacts with intrinsic constraints and triggers a large-scale reallocation of computational load between auditory and visual brain regions that typically support the multisensory processing of motion information.HighlightsAuditory motion-sensitive regions respond to visual motion in the deafReorganized auditory cortex can discriminate between visual motion trajectoriesPart of the deaf auditory cortex shows preference for in-depth visual motionDeafness might lead to computational reallocation between auditory/visual regions.

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Increased orbitofrontal connectivity in misophonia

10.1101/2020.10.29.346650 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Leonardo Cerliani ◽

Romke Rouw

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Emotional Reaction ◽

Emotional States ◽

Behavioural Inhibition ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Fmri Study

AbstractFor individuals with misophonia, specific innocuous sensory stimuli - such as hearing another person chewing or breathing - evoke strong negative emotional and physiological responses, such as extreme anger, disgust, stress and anxiety. Instead people with misophonia do not experience or display atypical reactions to generic aversive sounds such as screams or nails scratching on a blackboard. Misophonia appears to be unrelated to neurological trauma or hearing deficit, and features a characteristic developmental pattern. Its aetiology is currently unknown.The few previous fMRI studies on misophonia showed that sufferers feature increased dorsal anterior insula activity during trigger vs. generic aversive sounds. While this effect likely reflects the saliency associated with the perception of trigger sounds in people with misophonia, in the present fMRI study we investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the emotional reaction to trigger stimuli. To this aim, we probe the task-dependent connectivity of mid-cingulate, medial premotor and ventrolateral premotor cortex. We observe that only in participants with misophonia the presentation of trigger audio-visuals prompts an increased interaction of these three brain regions with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. This brain region is crucial for behavioural inhibition mediated by cognitive and emotional content (such as in reward-reversal learning) and is part of the temporo-amygdala-orbitofrontal network, which integrates visceral and emotional states with cognition and behaviour. We also observe that in people with misophonia trigger sounds prompt a significant increase in the interaction between mid-cingulate and the primary auditory cortex.Our study replicates previous results and expands the network of brain regions involved in misophonia. The involvement of the orbitofrontal cortex suggests a defective functioning of high-order integrative processes allowing the reappraisal of experience-dependent negative emotional association with harmless sensory stimuli, and sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the compulsive nature of the misophonic reaction. The increased interaction, rather than the overall activity, of the primary auditory cortex with the mid-cingulate supports the hypothesis that the emotional response in misophonia is subserved by an indirect auditory-limbic pathway processing the subjective valence of specific sounds, rather than their physical properties alone.

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