Biology subjects

Boebinger, D. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Boebinger, D. L..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Preserved functional organization of human auditory cortex in individuals missing one temporal lobe from infancy

Human cortical responses to natural sounds, measured with fMRI, can be approximated as the weighted sum of a small number of canonical response patterns (components), each having interpretable functional and anatomical properties. Here, we asked whether this organization is preserved in cases where only one temporal lobe is available due to early brain damage by investigating a unique family: one sibling born without a left temporal lobe, another without a right temporal lobe, and a third anatomically neurotypical. We analyzed fMRI responses to diverse natural sounds within the intact hemispheres of these individuals and compared them to 12 neurotypical participants. All siblings manifested the neurotypical auditory responses in their intact hemispheres. These results suggest that the development of the auditory cortex in each hemisphere does not depend on the existence of the other hemisphere, highlighting the redundancy and equipotentiality of the bilateral auditory system.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Music-selective cortex is sensitive to structure in both pitch and time

Music is distinguished from other natural sounds by the presence of relatively discrete notes, which are then organized across pitch and time to convey melody, harmony, and rhythm. Growing evidence suggests that small clusters of neural populations within anterior and posterior human non-primary auditory cortex respond selectively to musical structure. However, it is unclear whether this selectivity reflects short-term musical structure at the level of individual notes, and/or the patterning of notes in pitch and time. We used fMRI voxel decomposition to measure the response of music-selective and non-selective auditory neural populations to synthetic music and drum stimuli whose notes were scrambled in pitch and/or time, disrupting musical pattern structure while largely preserving note-level structure. We observed reliably stronger responses to music with intact pitch and temporal pattern structure in both anterior and posterior music-selective regions bilaterally, but little difference between intact and scrambled music in non-selective populations. Further, only music-selective populations showed reliably stronger responses to note-scrambled music compared with non-music sounds. These results suggest that musical structure involving both individual notes and their patterning over time is specifically represented in localized music-selective neural populations of human non-primary auditory cortex.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Cortical music selectivity does not require musical training

Recent work has shown that human auditory cortex contains neural populations anterior and posterior to primary auditory cortex that respond selectively to music. However, it is unknown how this selectivity for music arises. To test whether musical training is necessary, we measured fMRI responses to 192 natural sounds in 10 people with almost no musical training. When voxel responses were decomposed into underlying components, this group exhibited a music-selective component that was very similar in response profile and anatomical distribution to that previously seen in individuals with moderate musical training. We also found that musical genres that were less familiar to our participants (e.g., Balinese gamelan) produced strong responses within the music component, as did drum clips with rhythm but little melody, suggesting that these neural populations are broadly responsive to music as a whole. Our findings demonstrate that the signature properties of neural music selectivity do not require musical training to develop, showing that the music-selective neural populations are a fundamental and widespread property of the human brain. NEW & NOTEWORTHYWe show that music-selective neural populations are clearly present in people without musical training, demonstrating that they are a fundamental and widespread property of the human brain. Additionally, we show music-selective neural populations respond strongly to music from unfamiliar genres as well as music with rhythm but little pitch information, suggesting that they are broadly responsive to music as a whole.

neuroscience↗