Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Hearing01:31

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
The Cochlea01:13

The Cochlea

The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Auditory Pathway01:15

Auditory Pathway

Auditory pathways constitute the complex neural circuits responsible for transmitting and interpreting auditory information from the peripheral auditory system to the brain. Sound waves are initially captured by the outer ear, funneled through the ear canal, and reach the tympanic membrane (eardrum). These vibrations are transmitted via the middle ear's ossicles to the inner ear's cochlea.
When viewed cross-sectionally, the cochlea reveals the scala vestibuli and scala tympani flanking the...
Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex01:23

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at the...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location01:21

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

At-Home Auditory Assessment Using Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART) to Understand Self-Reported Hearing Difficulties.

Trends in hearing·2025
Same author

Effects of Gamification on Performance and Subjective Listening Effort on a Spatial Release From Masking Task.

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR·2025
Same author

Effects of reverberation and binaural sensitivity on spatial release from masking.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2025
Same author

The role of talker sex and physical dimensions in horizontal speech directivity.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2025
Same author

Chronic Auditory-Nerve Implant Enhances Brainstem Phase Locking to Electric Pulse Trains.

Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO·2025
Same author

Frequency Following Responses to Electric Cochlear Stimulation in an Animal Model.

Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO·2025
Same journal

The cell cloud: Adopting systems biology concepts in the era of single-cell immunology.

PLoS biology·2026
Same journal

Disinhibitory signaling enables flexible coding of top-down information in cortical networks.

PLoS biology·2026
Same journal

Correction: Cdc42 interacts with chaperone Ydj1 to enhance its stability and partitioning during asymmetric cell division and aging in yeast.

PLoS biology·2026
Same journal

Towards globally equitable bioinformatics adoption.

PLoS biology·2026
Same journal

The human claustrum supports cognitive networks for externally and internally driven task demands.

PLoS biology·2026
Same journal

Unusual decay: Recombination loss leads to splicing errors in green algae.

PLoS biology·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example
08:45

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Published on: October 24, 2012

Location coding by opponent neural populations in the auditory cortex.

G Christopher Stecker1, Ian A Harrington, John C Middlebrooks

  • 1Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. cstecker@ebire.org <cstecker@ebire.org>

Plos Biology
|March 2, 2005
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals how the auditory cortex processes sound localization. A new model explains how differences in neural activity accurately represent sound sources, resolving a long-standing paradox in auditory spatial coding.

More Related Videos

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning
08:43

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning

Published on: October 22, 2015

Multiscale Investigations of Cortical Processing by Integrating Laminar Polytrodes and Optogenetics with Micro Electrocorticography in Rodents
07:52

Multiscale Investigations of Cortical Processing by Integrating Laminar Polytrodes and Optogenetics with Micro Electrocorticography in Rodents

Published on: May 23, 2025

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example
08:45

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Published on: October 24, 2012

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning
08:43

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning

Published on: October 22, 2015

Multiscale Investigations of Cortical Processing by Integrating Laminar Polytrodes and Optogenetics with Micro Electrocorticography in Rodents
07:52

Multiscale Investigations of Cortical Processing by Integrating Laminar Polytrodes and Optogenetics with Micro Electrocorticography in Rodents

Published on: May 23, 2025

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Auditory Neuroscience
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • The auditory cortex is crucial for sound localization, but neural responses show spatial sampling inconsistencies.
  • Existing models struggle to reconcile inhomogeneous neural tuning with precise frontal midline localization behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate spatial sampling in cat auditory cortex.
  • To propose and validate an opponent-process model for sound localization.

Main Methods:

  • Examined neural responses in three fields of the cat auditory cortex.
  • Developed a computational model based on opponent-process theory and spike-count differences.

Main Results:

  • Confirmed greatest neural responses for lateral sound sources but maximal modulation near the midline.
  • Cortical activity accurately discriminates left from right but struggles with finer location discrimination within hemifields.
  • The proposed model demonstrated bias-free, level-invariant sound localization.

Conclusions:

  • Sound source location is represented by the difference in activity between broadly tuned neural channels.
  • This opponent-process model resolves the paradox of inhomogeneous spatial sampling and explains accurate sound localization.
  • The model offers a solution to the auditory binding problem.