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Intracerebral evidence of rhythm transform in the human auditory cortex

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Abstract

Musical entrainment is shared by all human cultures and the perception of a periodic beat is a cornerstone of this entrainment behavior. Here, we investigated whether beat perception might have its roots in the earliest stages of auditory cortical processing. Local field potentials were recorded from 8 patients implanted with depth-electrodes in Heschl’s gyrus and the planum temporale (55 recording sites in total), usually considered as human primary and secondary auditory cortices. Using a frequency-tagging approach, we show that both low-frequency (<30 Hz) and high-frequency (>30 Hz) neural activities in these structures faithfully track auditory rhythms through frequency-locking to the rhythm envelope. A selective gain in amplitude of the response frequency-locked to the beat frequency was observed for the low-frequency activities but not for the high-frequency activities, and was sharper in the planum temporale, especially for the more challenging syncopated rhythm. Hence, this gain process is not systematic in all activities produced in these areas and depends on the complexity of the rhythmic input. Moreover, this gain was disrupted when the rhythm was presented at fast speed, revealing low-pass response properties which could account for the propensity to perceive a beat only within the musical tempo range. Together, these observations show that, even though part of these neural transforms of rhythms could already take place in subcortical auditory processes, the earliest auditory cortical processes shape the neural representation of rhythmic inputs in favor of the emergence of a periodic beat.

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Acknowledgements

S.N. is supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA DE160101064 and by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) FRSM 3.4558.12 Convention Grant (to Pr. A. Mouraux). J.J. and B.R. are supported by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuroscience (Ions), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), 53, Avenue Mounier, UCL 53.75, 1200, Brussels, Belgium

    Sylvie Nozaradan, André Mouraux, Jacques Jonas & Bruno Rossion

  2. The MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, 2214, Australia

    Sylvie Nozaradan

  3. International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (Brams), Montreal, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Sylvie Nozaradan

  4. Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54035, Nancy, France

    Jacques Jonas, Bruno Rossion & Louis Maillard

  5. CRAN UMR 7039 CNRS Université de Lorraine, 54035, Nancy, France

    Jacques Jonas & Louis Maillard

  6. Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Bruno Rossion

  7. Neurosurgery Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 54035, Nancy, France

    Sophie Colnat-Coulbois

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  1. Sylvie Nozaradan
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Correspondence to Sylvie Nozaradan.

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Nozaradan, S., Mouraux, A., Jonas, J. et al. Intracerebral evidence of rhythm transform in the human auditory cortex. Brain Struct Funct 222, 2389–2404 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1348-0

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