Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Neural correlates of sensory and decision processes in auditory object identification

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 295–301 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Physiological studies of auditory perception have not yet clearly distinguished sensory from decision processes. In this experiment, human participants identified speech sounds masked by varying levels of noise while blood oxygenation signals in the brain were recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Accuracy and response time were used to characterize the behavior of sensory and decision components of this perceptual system. Oxygenation signals in a cortical subregion just anterior and lateral to primary auditory cortex predicted accuracy of sound identification, whereas signals in an inferior frontal region predicted response time. Our findings provide neurophysiological evidence for a functional distinction between sensory and decision mechanisms underlying auditory object identification. The present results also indicate a link between inferior frontal lobe activation and response-selection processes during auditory perception tasks.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Speech stimuli.
Figure 2: Timing of image acquisition and stimulus presentations for the syllable task.
Figure 3: Behavioral results.
Figure 4: Syllable task versus baseline task.
Figure 5: Neural correlates of sensory and decision indexes.
Figure 6: Comparisons between behavioral and brain activation measures.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zatorre, R.R. & Binder, J.R. The human auditory system. in Brain Mapping: The Systems (eds. Toga, A.W. & Mazziotta, J.C.) 365–402 (Academic, San Diego, 2000).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Näätänen, R. The perception of speech sounds by the human brain as reflected by the mismatch negativity (MMN) and its magnetic equivalent (MMNm). Psychophysiology 38, 1–21 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Mecklinger, A., Ullsperger, P., Molle, M. & Grune, K. Event-related potentials indicate information extraction in a comparative judgement task. Psychophysiology 31, 23–28 (1994).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Honey, G.D., Bullmore, E.T. & Sharma, T. Prolonged reaction time to a verbal working memory task predicts increased power of posterior parietal cortical activation. NeuroImage 12, 495–503 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Fiez, J.A. et al. PET studies of auditory and phonological processing: Effects of stimulus characteristics and task demands. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 7, 357–375 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Price, C.J. et al. Hearing and saying. The functional neuroanatomy of auditory word processing. Brain 119, 919–931 (1996).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Burton, M.W., Small, S. & Blumstein, S.E. The role of segmentation in phonological processing: an fMRI investigation. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 12, 679–690 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Hall, D.A. et al. Modulation and task effects in auditory processing measured using fMRI. Hum. Brain Mapp. 10, 107–119 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Norris, D. & Wise, R. The study of prelexical and lexical processes in comprehension: Psycholinguistics and functional neuroimaging. in The New Cognitive Neurosciences 2nd edn. (ed. Gazzaniga, M.S.) 867–880 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Donders, F.C. On the speed of mental processes. Acta Psychologica, 30, 412–431 (1969).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Yellott, J.I., Jr. Correction for guessing and the speed-accuracy tradeoff in choice reaction time. J. Math. Psychol. 8, 159–199 (1971).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Grice, G.R., Nullmeyer, R. & Spiker, V.A. Human reaction time: toward a general theory. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 111, 135–153 (1982).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Binder, J.R. et al. Human temporal lobe activation by speech and nonspeech sounds. Cereb. Cortex 10, 512–528 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Scott, S.K., Blank, C., Rosen, S. & Wise, R.J.S. Identification of a pathway for intelligible speech in the left temporal lobe. Brain 123, 2400–2406 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Belin, P., Zatorre, R.J. & Ahad, P. Human temporal-lobe response to vocal sounds. Cogn. Brain Res. 13, 17–26 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Liebenthal, E., Binder, J.R., Piorkowski, R.L. & Remez, R.E. Short-term reorganization of auditory analysis induced by phonetic experience. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 15, 549–558 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Davis, M.H. & Johnsrude, I.S. Hierarchical processing in spoken language comprehension. J. Neurosci. 23, 3423–3431 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Warren, J.D. & Griffiths, T.D. Distinct mechanisms for processing spatial sequences and pitch sequences in the human auditory brain. J. Neurosci. 23, 5799–5804 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Meyer, A. The relationship of the auditory center to aphasia. J. Psychol. Neurol. 13, 203–213 (1908).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Kleist, K. Sensory Aphasia and Amusia (Pergamon Press, London, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Galaburda, A.M., Sanides, F. & Geschwind, N. Human brain. Cytoarchitectonic left-right asymmetries in the temporal speech region. Arch. Neurol. 35, 812–817 (1978).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Rademacher, J., Caviness, V.S., Steinmetz, H. & Galaburda, A.M. Topographical variation of the human primary cortices: Implications for neuroimaging, brain mapping and neurobiology. Cereb. Cortex 3, 313–329 (1993).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Galaburda, A.M. & Pandya, D.N. The intrinsic architectonic and connectional organization of the superior temporal region of the rhesus monkey. J. Comp. Neurol. 221, 169–184 (1983).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Kaas, J.H. & Hackett, T.A. Subdivisions of auditory cortex and levels of processing in primates. Audiol. Neurootol. 3, 73–85 (1998).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Romanski, L.M. et al. Dual streams of auditory afferents target multiple domains in the primate prefrontal cortex. Nat. Neurosci. 2, 1131–1136 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Tian, B., Reser, D., Durham, A., Kustov, A. & Rauschecker, J.P. Functional specialization in the rhesus monkey auditory cortex. Science 292, 290–293 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Grabowski, T.J. & Damasio, A.R. Investigating language with functional neuroimaging. in Brain Mapping: The Systems (eds. Toga, A.W. & Mazziotta, J.C.) 425–461 (Academic, San Diego, 2000).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Binder, J.R. & Price, C.J. Functional imaging of language. in Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition (eds. Cabeza, R. & Kingstone, A.) 187–251 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Tallal, P., Miller, S. & Fitch, R. Neurobiological basis of speech: a case for the preeminence of temporal processing. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 682, 27–47 (1993).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Johnsrude, I.S., Zatorre, R.J., Milner, B.A. & Evans, A.C. Left-hemisphere specialization for the processing of acoustic transients. Neuroreport 8, 61–65 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Poeppel, D. The analysis of speech in different temporal integration windows: cerebral lateralization as 'asymmetric sampling in time'. Speech Commun. 41, 245–255 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Zatorre, R.J., Belin, P. & Penhune, V.B. Structure and function of auditory cortex: music and speech. Trends Cogn. Sci. 6, 37–46 (2002).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Démonet, J.-F. et al. The anatomy of phonological and semantic processing in normal subjects. Brain 115, 1753–1768 (1992).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Zatorre, R.J., Evans, A.C., Meyer, E. & Gjedde, A. Lateralization of phonetic and pitch discrimination in speech processing. Science 256, 846–849 (1992).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Green, D.M. & Swets, J.A. Signal Detection Theory (Wiley, New York, 1966).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Krawczyk, D.C. Contributions of the prefrontal cortex to the neural basis of human decision making. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 26, 631–664 (2002).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Binder, J.R. et al. Human brain language areas identified by functional MRI. J. Neurosci. 17, 353–362 (1997).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Lewis, J.W., Beauchamp, M.S. & DeYoe, E.A. A comparison of visual and auditory motion processing in human cerebral cortex. Cereb. Cortex 10, 873–888 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Adler, C.M. et al. Changes in neuronal activation with increasing attention demand in healthy volunteers: an fMRI study. Synapse 42, 266–272 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Menon, V., Adleman, N.E., White, C.D., Glover, G.H. & Reiss, A.L. Error-related brain activation during a Go/NoGo response inhibition task. Hum. Brain Mapp. 12, 131–143 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Taylor, S.F., Kornblum, S., Minoshima, S., Oliver, L.M. & Koeppe, R.A. Changes in medial cortical blood flow with a stimulus-response compatibility task. Neuropsychologia 32, 249–255 (1994).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Braver, T.S., Barch, D.M., Gray, J.R., Molfese, D.L. & Snyder, A. Anterior cingulate cortex and response conflict: Effects of frequency, inhibition and errors. Cereb. Cortex 11, 825–836 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Ullsperger, M. & von Cramon, D.Y. Subprocesses of performance monitoring: A dissociation of error processing and response competition revealed by event-related fMRI and ERPs. Neuroimage 14, 1387–1401 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Horovitz, S.G., Skudlarski, P. & Gore, J.C. Correlations and dissociations between BOLD signal and p300 amplitude in an auditory oddball task: a parametric approach to combining fMRI and ERP. Magn. Reson. Imaging 20, 319–325 (2002).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Ito, S.-I., Ohgushi, M., Ifuku, H. & Ogawa, H. Neuronal activity in the monkey fronto-opercular and adjacent insular/prefrontal cortices during a taste discrimination GO/NOGO task: response to cues. Neurosci. Res. 41, 257–266 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Scott, S.K. & Johnsrude, I.S. The neuroanatomical and functional organization of speech perception. Trends Neurosci. 26, 100–107 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Oldfield, R.C. The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9, 97–113 (1971).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Fant, G. Speech Sounds and Features (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973).

    Google Scholar 

  49. Cox, R.W. AFNI: software for analysis and visualization of functional magnetic resonance neuroimages. Comput. Biomed. Res. 29, 162–173 (1996).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Talairach, J. & Tournoux, P. Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain (Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank J.N. Kaufman, R. Tong, A. Jesmanowicz and R.W. Cox for technical assistance. Supported by National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke grant R01 NS33576, National Institute of Mental Health grant P01 MH51358 and National Institutes of Health General Clinical Research Center grant M01 RR00058.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, 53226, Wisconsin, USA

    Jeffrey R Binder, Einat Liebenthal, Edward T Possing & David A Medler

  2. Department of Cellular Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, 53226, Wisconsin, USA

    Jeffrey R Binder

  3. Department of Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, 53226, Wisconsin, USA

    B Douglas Ward

Authors
  1. Jeffrey R Binder
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Einat Liebenthal
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Edward T Possing
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. David A Medler
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. B Douglas Ward
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey R Binder.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Binder, J., Liebenthal, E., Possing, E. et al. Neural correlates of sensory and decision processes in auditory object identification. Nat Neurosci 7, 295–301 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1198

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1198

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing