Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro
Published on: August 28, 2019
Neuroanatomical substrate of noise sensitivity
Marina Kliuchko1, Tuomas Puoliväli2, Marja Heinonen-Guzejev3
1Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg (RAMA), Aarhus, Denmark; Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Abstract:
Recent functional studies suggest that noise sensitivity, a trait describing attitudes towards noise and predicting noise annoyance, is associated with altered processing in the central auditory system. In the present work, we examined whether noise sensitivity could be related to the structural anatomy of auditory and limbic brain areas. Anatomical MR brain images of 80 subjects were parcellated with FreeSurfer to measure grey matter volume, cortical thickness, cortical area and folding index of anatomical structures in the temporal lobe and insular cortex. The grey matter volume of amygdala and hippocampus was measured as well. According to our findings, noise sensitivity is associated with the grey matter volume in the selected structures. Among those, we propose and discuss particular areas, previously linked to auditory perceptual, emotional and interoceptive processing, in which larger grey matter volume seems to be related to higher noise sensitivity.
Related Concept Videos
Local Anesthetics: Differential Sensitivity of Nerve Fibers
Hearing
Neuroplasticity
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
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...

