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Updated: May 28, 2026

Functional Imaging of Auditory Cortex in Adult Cats using High-field fMRI
Published on: February 19, 2014
Mapping the tonotopic organization in human auditory cortex with minimally salient acoustic stimulation
Dave R M Langers1, Pim van Dijk
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. d.r.m.langers@umcg.nl
Abstract:
Despite numerous neuroimaging studies, the tonotopic organization in human auditory cortex is not yet unambiguously established. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, 20 subjects were presented with low-level task-irrelevant tones to avoid spread of cortical activation. Data-driven analyses were employed to obtain robust tonotopic maps. Two high-frequency endpoints were situated on the caudal and rostral banks of medial Heschl's gyrus, while low-frequency activation peaked on its lateral crest. Based on cortical parcellations, these 2 tonotopic progressions coincide with the primary auditory field (A1) in lateral koniocortex (Kl) and the rostral field (R) in medial koniocortex (Km), which together constitute a core region. Another gradient was found on the planum temporale. Our results show the bilateral existence of 3 tonotopic gradients in angulated orientations, which contrasts with colinear configurations that were suggested before. We argue that our results corroborate and elucidate the apparently contradictory findings in literature.
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