Subcortical auditory information processing after bilateral auditory cortex ablation

Abstract

Descending projections from cerebral cortex to subcortical nuclei are among the largest pathways in the brain, suggesting that they are important for subcortical processing. In the auditory system, the cortical output targets multiple subcortical nuclei. However, compared with the ascending pathways, the functional roles of these corticofugal projections are poorly understood. Non-invasive fMRI is well suited to investigating this question because it can assess activities in multiple nuclei simultaneously. In this study, bSSFP fMRI was applied to study the effect of bilateral auditory cortex ablation on the responses to sound pressure level (SPL) change in low subcortical target nuclei.