Auditory Selective Attention Modulates Activation of Human Inferior Colliculus

• Published in: Journal of neurophysiology Vol. 100; no. 6; pp. 3323 - 3327
• Main Authors: Rinne, Teemu, Balk, Marja H, Koistinen, Sonja, Autti, Taina, Alho, Kimmo, Sams, Mikko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Am Phys Soc 01.12.2008
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation - methods; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attention - physiology; Auditory Pathways - physiology; Brain Mapping; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Inferior Colliculi - blood supply; Inferior Colliculi - physiology; Male; Middle Aged; Noise; Oxygen - blood; Reaction Time; Visual Perception - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0022-3077; 1522-1598
• DOI: 10.1152/jn.90607.2008

1 Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki; 2 Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki; 3 Helsinki Medical Imaging Center, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki; and 4 Advanced Magnetic Imaging Centre, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland Submitted 26 May 2008; accepted in final form 10 October 2008 Selective auditory attention powerfully modulates neural activity in the human auditory cortex (AC). In contrast, the role of attention in subcortical auditory processing is not well established. Here, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine activation of the human inferior colliculus (IC) during strictly controlled auditory attention tasks. The IC is an obligatory midbrain nucleus of the ascending auditory pathway with diverse internal and external connections. The IC also receives a massive descending projection from the AC, suggesting that cortical processes affect IC operations. In this study, 21 subjects selectively attended to left-ear or right-ear sounds and ignored sounds delivered to the other ear. IC activations depended on the direction of attention, indicating that auditory processing in the human IC is not only determined by acoustic input but also by the current behavioral goals. Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: T. Rinne, Dept. of Psychology, PO Box 9, FI-00014, Univ. of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (E-mail: teemu.rinne{at}helsinki.fi )