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Related Concept Videos

Auditory Pathway

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...

Hearing

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 Cochlea

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.

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

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...

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

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.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion

Published on: May 4, 2011

Emotion modulates activity in the 'what' but not 'where' auditory processing pathway.

James H Kryklywy¹, Ewan A Macpherson, Steven G Greening

¹Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5A5, Canada.

|May 29, 2013

Summary

Emotion slows auditory localization and impacts the auditory

Keywords:

Auditory localization Auditory processing pathways Dual processing pathways Emotion Virtual environment fMRI

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Auditory Perception
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Auditory cortices have distinct processing pathways, analogous to the visual system.
Emotional stimuli enhance neural activation in sensory cortices, particularly the ventral visual stream.
The impact of emotion on auditory stimulus localization and dorsal processing streams remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of emotion on auditory stimulus localization using fMRI.
To determine how emotion interacts with auditory processing pathways.
To differentiate between 'what' and 'where' auditory processing streams in relation to emotional content.

Main Methods:

fMRI was employed with individualized auditory virtual environments.
Participants performed an auditory stimulus localization task with emotional and neutral sounds.
Region of interest (ROI) analyses were conducted for location-sensitive and identity-sensitive pathways.

Main Results:

Participants were significantly slower to localize emotional sounds compared to neutral sounds.
Posterior-medial auditory cortex responded to sound location, while anterior-lateral regions showed enhanced activity for emotional stimuli.
The 'what' pathway (identity processing) showed significant effects of both location and emotion, including an interaction.

Conclusions:

Emotion selectively modulates activity within the 'what' auditory processing pathway, not the 'where' pathway.
This suggests a dissociation in how the brain processes the identity and location of emotional sounds.
Findings contribute to understanding dual pathway models of auditory processing and emotional influences.