Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

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.

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Auditory cortical forward masking effects in squirrel monkeys with unilateral noise-induced hearing loss.

Hearing research·2026

Same author

Timing and Convergence of Ensemble Activity Govern Auditory Thalamocortical Transmission.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same author

Decoding of frequency-modulated sweeps by core and belt neurons in the alert macaque auditory cortex.

Journal of neurophysiology·2025

Same author

Deep neural networks explain spiking activity in auditory cortex.

PLoS computational biology·2025

Same author

Limitations on Temporal Processing by Cochlear Implant Users: A Compilation of Viewpoints.

Trends in hearing·2025

Same author

Hierarchical emergence of opponent coding in auditory belt cortex.

Journal of neurophysiology·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Spectral context affects temporal processing in awake auditory cortex.

Brian J Malone¹, Ralph E Beitel, Maike Vollmer

¹Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0444, USA. bjmalone724@gmail.com

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|May 31, 2013

Summary

This study explored how the auditory cortex processes amplitude modulation in tonal versus noise carriers. Tonal carriers enabled better neural discrimination of modulation frequency, revealing the auditory cortex

More Related Videos

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

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

Published on: October 22, 2015

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 11, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

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

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

Published on: October 22, 2015

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control

Published on: July 5, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Auditory Neuroscience
Psychoacoustics

Background:

Amplitude modulation (AM) encoding is crucial for speech perception and sound processing.
The modulation transfer function (MTF) predicts speech intelligibility in challenging listening conditions.
Differences in cortical representation between tonal and noise carriers are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the differences in the auditory cortical representation of sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) using tonal versus noise carriers.
To compare the modulation transfer functions (MTFs) and neural discrimination of modulation frequency for different carrier types.

Main Methods:

Recorded MTFs in the auditory cortex of awake squirrel monkeys using 16-channel linear arrays.
Presented sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) with narrowband tonal and two-octave bandwidth noise carriers.
Analyzed neural responses and used spike discrimination techniques to assess modulation frequency discrimination.

Main Results:

Carrier type significantly affected both rate and temporal MTFs in auditory neurons.
Neural discrimination of modulation frequency was significantly better for tonal SAM compared to noise SAM.
Spike trains elicited by tonal and noise SAM were generally distinguishable at the population level.

Conclusions:

The auditory cortex exhibits remarkable sensitivity to the spectral content of modulated signals.
There is a substantial interdependence between temporal and spectral processing in core auditory cortex neurons.
Carrier type influences neural processing of amplitude modulation, impacting speech perception mechanisms.