Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise
Human neuroimaging studies have identified a region of auditory cortex, lateral Heschl’s gyrus (HG), that shows a greater response to iterated ripple noise (IRN) than to a Gaussian noise control. Based in part on results using IRN as a pitch-evoking stimulus, it has been argued that lateral HG is a...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford Journals
2012
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3227/ |
| _version_ | 1848790981797740544 |
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| author | Barker, Daphne Plack, Christopher J. Hall, Deborah A. |
| author_facet | Barker, Daphne Plack, Christopher J. Hall, Deborah A. |
| author_sort | Barker, Daphne |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Human neuroimaging studies have identified a region of auditory cortex, lateral Heschl’s gyrus (HG), that shows a greater response to iterated ripple noise (IRN) than to a Gaussian noise control. Based in part on results using IRN as a pitch-evoking stimulus, it has been argued that lateral HG is a general ‘‘pitch center.’’
However, IRN contains slowly varying spectrotemporal modulations, unrelated to pitch, that are not found in the control stimulus. Hence, it is possible that the cortical response to IRN is driven in part by these modulations. The current study reports the first attempt to control for these modulations. This was achieved using a novel type of stimulus that was generated by processing IRN to remove the fine temporal structure (and thus the pitch) but leave
the slowly varying modulations. This ‘‘no-pitch IRN’’ stimulus is referred to as IRNo. Results showed a widespread response to the spectrotemporal modulations across auditory cortex. When IRN was contrasted with IRNo rather than with Gaussian noise, the apparent effect of pitch was no longer statistically significant. Our
findings raise the possibility that a cortical response unrelated to pitch could previously have been errantly attributed to pitch coding. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:21:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-3227 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:21:15Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Oxford Journals |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-32272020-05-04T20:21:42Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3227/ Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise Barker, Daphne Plack, Christopher J. Hall, Deborah A. Human neuroimaging studies have identified a region of auditory cortex, lateral Heschl’s gyrus (HG), that shows a greater response to iterated ripple noise (IRN) than to a Gaussian noise control. Based in part on results using IRN as a pitch-evoking stimulus, it has been argued that lateral HG is a general ‘‘pitch center.’’ However, IRN contains slowly varying spectrotemporal modulations, unrelated to pitch, that are not found in the control stimulus. Hence, it is possible that the cortical response to IRN is driven in part by these modulations. The current study reports the first attempt to control for these modulations. This was achieved using a novel type of stimulus that was generated by processing IRN to remove the fine temporal structure (and thus the pitch) but leave the slowly varying modulations. This ‘‘no-pitch IRN’’ stimulus is referred to as IRNo. Results showed a widespread response to the spectrotemporal modulations across auditory cortex. When IRN was contrasted with IRNo rather than with Gaussian noise, the apparent effect of pitch was no longer statistically significant. Our findings raise the possibility that a cortical response unrelated to pitch could previously have been errantly attributed to pitch coding. Oxford Journals 2012-04 Article PeerReviewed Barker, Daphne, Plack, Christopher J. and Hall, Deborah A. (2012) Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise. Cerebral Cortex, 22 (4). pp. 745-753. ISSN 1460-2199 http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/4/745 doi:10.1093/cercor/bhr065 doi:10.1093/cercor/bhr065 |
| spellingShingle | Barker, Daphne Plack, Christopher J. Hall, Deborah A. Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise |
| title | Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise |
| title_full | Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise |
| title_fullStr | Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise |
| title_full_unstemmed | Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise |
| title_short | Re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fMRI study using iterated ripple noise |
| title_sort | re-examining the evidence for a pitch-sensitive region: a human fmri study using iterated ripple noise |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3227/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3227/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3227/ |