Mapping cortico-subcortical sensitivity to 4 Hz amplitude modulation depth in human auditory system with functional MRI

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Temporal modulations in the envelope of acoustic waveforms at rates around 4 Hz constitute a strong acoustic cue in speech and other natural sounds. It is often assumed that the ascending auditory pathway is increasingly sensitive to slow amplitude modulation (AM), but sensitivity to AM is typically considered separately for individual stages of the auditory system. Here, we used blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI in twenty human subjects (10 male) to measure sensitivity of regional neural activity in the auditory system to 4 Hz temporal modulations. Participants were exposed to AM noise stimuli varying parametrically in modulation depth to characterize modulation-depth effects on BOLD responses. A Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach was used to model potentially nonlinear relations between AM depth and group-level BOLD responses in auditory regions of interest (ROIs). Sound stimulation activated the auditory brainstem and cortex structures in single subjects. BOLD responses to noise exposure in core and belt auditory cortices scaled positively with modulation depth. This finding was corroborated by whole-brain cluster-level inference. Sensitivity to AM depth variations was particularly pronounced in the Heschl's gyrus but also found in higher-order auditory cortical regions. None of the sound-responsive subcortical auditory structures showed a BOLD response profile that reflected the parametric variation in AM depth. The results are compatible with the notion that early auditory cortical regions play a key role in processing low-rate modulation content of sounds in the human auditory system.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer118745
TidsskriftNeuroImage
Vol/bind246
ISSN1053-8119
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Ruben Vestergaard for helpful discussions and to all participants for participating in the study. HRS has received honoraria as speaker from Sanofi Genzyme, Denmark and Novartis, Denmark, as consultant from Sanofi Genzyme, Denmark and as editor-in-chief (Neuroimage Clinical) and senior editor (NeuroImage) from Elsevier Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has received royalties as book editor from Springer Publishers, Stuttgart, Germany and from Gyldendal Publishers, Copenhagen, Denmark. This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation synergy Grant NNF17OC0027872 (UHeal). HRS holds a 5-year professorship in precision medicine at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Copenhagen which is sponsored by the Lundbeck Foundation (Grant No. R186-2015-2138). The data for this manuscript are not publicly available. Code is available upon reasonable request.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation synergy Grant NNF17OC0027872 (UHeal). HRS holds a 5-year professorship in precision medicine at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Copenhagen which is sponsored by the Lundbeck Foundation (Grant No. R186-2015-2138).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

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