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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 15, 2004, 24(50):11307-11316; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3935-04.2004

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Selectivity for the Spatial and Nonspatial Attributes of Auditory Stimuli in the Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex

Yale E. Cohen,^1,2 Brian E. Russ,¹ Gordon W. Gifford, III,¹ Ruwan Kiringoda,¹ and Katherine A. MacLean¹

¹Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and ²Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755

Spatial and nonspatial auditory processing is hypothesized to occur in parallel dorsal and ventral pathways, respectively. In this study, we tested the spatial and nonspatial sensitivity of auditory neurons in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), a cortical area in the hypothetical nonspatial pathway. We found that vPFC neurons were modulated significantly by both the spatial and nonspatial attributes of an auditory stimulus. When comparing these responses with those in anterolateral belt region of the auditory cortex, which is hypothesized to be specialized for processing the nonspatial attributes of auditory stimuli, we found that the nonspatial sensitivity of vPFC neurons was poorer, whereas the spatial selectivity was better than anterolateral neurons. Also, the spatial and nonspatial sensitivity of vPFC neurons was comparable with that seen in the lateral intraparietal area, a cortical area that is a part of the dorsal pathway. These data suggest that substantial spatial and nonspatial processing occurs in both the dorsal and ventral pathways.

Key words: spatial processing; nonspatial processing; prefrontal cortex; auditory; rhesus; vocalization

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Received Sep 22, 2004; revised November 4, 2004; accepted November 5, 2004.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. E. Russ, A. L. Ackelson, A. E. Baker, and Y. E. Cohen Coding of Auditory-Stimulus Identity in the Auditory Non-Spatial Processing Stream J Neurophysiol, January 1, 2008; 99(1): 87 - 95. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y. E. Cohen, F. Theunissen, B. E. Russ, and P. Gill Acoustic Features of Rhesus Vocalizations and Their Representation in the Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2007; 97(2): 1470 - 1484. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. DiMattina and X. Wang Virtual Vocalization Stimuli for Investigating Neural Representations of Species-Specific Vocalizations J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2006; 95(2): 1244 - 1262. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. B. Sereno and S. C. Amador Attention and Memory-Related Responses of Neurons in the Lateral Intraparietal Area During Spatial and Shape-Delayed Match-to-Sample Tasks J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2006; 95(2): 1078 - 1098. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y. E. Cohen, B. E. Russ, and G. W. Gifford III Auditory processing in the posterior parietal cortex. Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev, September 1, 2005; 4(3): 218 - 231. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. W. Gifford III, K. A. MacLean, M. D. Hauser, and Y. E. Cohen The Neurophysiology of Functionally Meaningful Categories: Macaque Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Plays a Critical Role in Spontaneous Categorization of Species-Specific Vocalizations J. Cogn. Neurosci., September 1, 2005; 17(9): 1471 - 1482. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Fecteau, J. L. Armony, Y. Joanette, and P. Belin Sensitivity to Voice in Human Prefrontal Cortex J Neurophysiol, September 1, 2005; 94(3): 2251 - 2254. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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