A neural population selective for song in human auditory cortex

• Published in: Current biology Vol. 32; no. 7; pp. 1470 - 1484.e12
• Main Authors: Norman-Haignere, Sam V., Feather, Jenelle, Boebinger, Dana, Brunner, Peter, Ritaccio, Anthony, McDermott, Josh H., Schalk, Gerwin, Kanwisher, Nancy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 11.04.2022
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation - methods; auditory cortex; Auditory Cortex - physiology; Auditory Perception - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; component; ECoG; electrocorticography; fMRI; Humans; Music; natural sounds; song; speech; Speech - physiology; Speech Perception - physiology; voice; song; voice; fMRI; electrocorticography; component; music; auditory cortex; natural sounds; speech; ECoG
• ISSN: 0960-9822; 1879-0445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.01.069

How is music represented in the brain? While neuroimaging has revealed some spatial segregation between responses to music versus other sounds, little is known about the neural code for music itself. To address this question, we developed a method to infer canonical response components of human auditory cortex using intracranial responses to natural sounds, and further used the superior coverage of fMRI to map their spatial distribution. The inferred components replicated many prior findings, including distinct neural selectivity for speech and music, but also revealed a novel component that responded nearly exclusively to music with singing. Song selectivity was not explainable by standard acoustic features, was located near speech- and music-selective responses, and was also evident in individual electrodes. These results suggest that representations of music are fractionated into subpopulations selective for different types of music, one of which is specialized for the analysis of song. •Neural population responsive to singing, but not instrumental music or speech•New statistical method infers neural populations from human intracranial responses•fMRI used to map the spatial distribution of intracranial responses•Intracranial responses replicate distinct music- and speech-selective populations Using human intracranial recordings, Norman-Haignere et al. reveal a neural population that responds to singing, but not instrumental music or speech. This neural population was uncovered by modeling electrode responses as a weighted sum of canonical response components. The spatial distribution of each intracranial component was mapped using fMRI.