Author(s)

B. L. Giordano, C. Pernet, I. Charest, G. Belizaire, R. J. Zatorre, P. Belin

ISBN

Publication year

2014

Periodical

Periodical Number

1973-8102 (Electronic)

Volume

Pages

Author Address

Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Electronic address: brunog@psy.gla.ac.uk. FAU - Pernet, Cyril Brain Research Imaging Center, Neuroimaging Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Electronic address: cyril.pernet@ed.ac.uk. FAU - Charest, Ian Medical Research Council - Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. Electronic address: ian.charest@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk. FAU - Belizaire, Guylaine International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound (BRAMS), Universite de Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada; Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: guylaine.belizaire@umontreal.ca. FAU - Zatorre, Robert J Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound (BRAMS), Universite de Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: robert.zatorre@mcgill.ca. FAU - Belin, Pascal Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK; Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR7289, CNRS-Universite Aix Marseille, Marseille, France; International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound (BRAMS), Universite de Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: pascal.belin@glasgow.ac.uk.

Full version

Identifying sound sources is fundamental to developing a stable representation of the environment in the face of variable auditory information. The cortical processes underlying this ability have received little attention. In two fMRI experiments, we investigated passive adaptation to (Exp. 1) and explicit discrimination of (Exp. 2) source identities for different categories of auditory objects (voices, musical instruments, environmental sounds). All cortical effects of source identity were independent of high-level category information, and were accounted for by sound-to-sound differences in low-level structure (e.g., loudness). A conjunction analysis revealed that the left posterior middle frontal gyrus (pMFG) adapted to identity repetitions during both passive listening and active discrimination tasks. These results indicate that the comparison of sound source identities in a stream of auditory stimulation recruits the pMFG in a domain-general way, i.e., independent of the sound category, based on information contained in the low-level acoustical structure. pMFG recruitment during both passive listening and explicit identity comparison tasks also suggests its automatic engagement in sound source identity processing.