Effective and structural connectivity in the human auditory cortex

J. Upadhyay, A. Silver, T. A. Knaus, K. A. Lindgren, M. Ducros, D.-S. Kim, H. Tager-Flusberg
Journal of Neuroscience. 2008-03-26; 28(13): 3341-3349
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4434-07.2008

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1. J Neurosci. 2008 Mar 26;28(13):3341-9. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4434-07.2008.

Effective and structural connectivity in the human auditory cortex.

Upadhyay J(1), Silver A, Knaus TA, Lindgren KA, Ducros M, Kim DS, Tager-Flusberg
H.

Author information:
(1)Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston
University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA.

Language processing involves multiple neuronal structures in the human auditory
cortex. Although a variety of neuroimaging and mapping techniques have been
implemented to better understand language processing at the level of the auditory
cortex, much is unknown regarding how and by what pathways these structures
interact during essential tasks such as sentence comprehension. In this study,
the effective and structural connectivity at the level of the auditory cortex
were investigated. First, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses were
measured with time-resolved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during
audition of short sentences. Once BOLD activation maps were obtained, the
effective connectivity between primary auditory cortex and the surrounding
auditory regions on the supratemporal plane and superior temporal gyrus (STG)
were investigated using Granger causality mapping (GCM). Effective connectivity
was observed between the primary auditory cortex and (1) the lateral planum
polare and anterior STG, and (2) the lateral planum temporale and posterior STG.
By using diffusion tensor probabilistic mapping (DTPM), rostral and caudal fiber
pathways were detected between regions depicting effective connectivity. The
effective and structural connectivity results of the present study provide
further insight as to how auditory stimuli (i.e., human language) is processed at
the level of the auditory cortex. Furthermore, combining BOLD fMRI-based GCM and
DTPM analysis could provide a novel means to study effective and structural
connectivity not only in the auditory cortex, but also in other cortical regions.

DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4434-07.2008
PMID: 18367601 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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