SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE N623 - Week 8
Central Audition, from Cochlear Nucleus to Auditory Cortex, from Hearing to Language to Speech.

IgNobel of the Week (for fun)

  • 2015 - Professor Nick Enfield of the University of Sydney, for breakthrough research in linguistics that found evidence of a universal trait in human conversation.
    In a major cross-linguistic study, they sampled 31 languages and found all have a word with a near-identical sound and function as 'Huh' in the English language; evidence, they proposed, that 'Huh' is an indispensable tool in human communication.

    Intro blurb from https://markdingemanse.net

    Intro article

    and paper...
    Dingemanse M, Roberts SG, Baranova J, Blythe J, Drew P, et al. (2015) Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems. PLOS ONE 10(9): e0136100.

    Introductory and Original Literature Readings for discussion on October 20.

  • Review Kandel, Schwartz, Jessell, Chapter 31.
  • Chapter 6, The Brainstem Nuclei, from Pickles J.O., An Introduction to the Physiology of Hearing, 2nd edition, London:Academic Press, 1988.
  • Chapter 7, The Auditory Cortex, ibid.
  • Imig, TJ, Brugge, JF. (1978) Sources and terminations of callosal axons related to binaural and frequency maps in primary auditory cortex of the cat. J. Comp. Neur. 182: 637-660.

    Original Literature Readings for discussion on October 23.

  • Tian, B, Reser, D, Durham, A, Kustov, A, Rauschecker, JP. (2001) Functional specialization in rhesus monkey auditory cortex. Science 292: 290-293.
  • Knudsen, EI, Konishi, M. (1978) Space and frequency are represented separately in auditory midbrain of the owl. J. Neurophys. 41: 870-884.
  • Picture of an Owl's head.
  • Video clip of an owl catching a mouse in total darkness.
  • Suga, N, Jen, PHS. (1976) Disproportionate tonotopic representation for processing CF-FM sonar signals in the mustache bat auditory cortex. Science 194: 542-544.
  • Video clip of a bat catching a moth using sonar.
  • Suga, N, O'Neill, WE, Manabe, T. (1978) Cortical neurons sensitive to combinations of information-bearing elements of biosonar signals in the mustache bat. Science 200: 778-781
  • Suga, N. O'Neill, WE. (1979) Neural axis representating target range in the auditory cortex of the mustache bat. Science 206: 351-353.

    Original Literature Readings for discussion on October 25.

  • Stephanie A. White, Simon E. Fisher, Daniel H. Geschwind, Constance Scharff, and Timothy E. Holy (2006). Singing Mice, Songbirds, and More: Models for FOXP2 Function and Dysfunction in Human Speech and Language, The Journal of Neuroscience, October 11, 2006 - 26(41):10376-10379.
  • Simon E. Fisher and Constance Scharff (2009). FOXP2 as a molecular window into speech and language. Trends in Genetics 25:4 166-177.
  • Jean-Francois de Monet, Guillaume Thierry, and Dominique Cardebat (2005). Renewal of the Neurophysiology of Language: Functional Neuroimaging. Physiol Rev 85: 49-95.
  • Jeremy I. Skipper, Joseph T. Devlin, Daniel R. Lametti (2017) The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue: Review of the role of the motor system in speech perception. Brain & Language 164: 77-105.

    Optional Readings

  • Cheung, SW, Bedenbaugh, PH, Nagarajan, SS, and Schreiner, CE, (2001) Functional Organization of Squirrel Monkey Primary Auditory Cortex: Responses to Pure Tones. J Neurophysiol 85: 1732 - 1749.
  • Wang, X, Merzenich, M, Beitel, R and Schreiner, CE. (1995) Representations of a species-specific vocalization in the primate auditory cortex of the common marmoset: Temporal and spatial characteristics. J. Neurophys. 74: 2685-2706.
  • Cecilia S. L. Lai, Simon E. Fisher, Jane A. Hurst, Faraneh Vargha-Khadem & Anthony P. Monaco (2001). A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature 413: 519-523.

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