TY - JOUR
T1 - Case studies in neuroscience
T2 - Cortical contributions to the frequency-following response depend on subcortical synchrony
AU - White-Schwoch, Travis
AU - Krizman, Jennifer
AU - Nicol, Trent
AU - Kraus, Nina
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the Knowles Hearing Center.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 the American Physiological Society
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Frequency-following responses to musical notes spanning the octave 65-130 Hz were elicited in a person with auditory neuropathy, a disorder of subcortical neural synchrony, and a control subject. No phaselocked responses were observed in the person with auditory neuropathy. The control subject had robust responses synchronized to the fundamental frequency and its harmonics. Cortical onset responses to each note in the series were present in both subjects. These results support the hypothesis that subcortical neural synchrony is necessary to generate the frequency-following response-including for stimulus frequencies at which a cortical contribution has been noted. Although auditory cortex ensembles may synchronize to fundamental frequency cues in speech and music, subcortical neural synchrony appears to be a necessary antecedent. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A listener with auditory neuropathy, an absence of subcortical neural synchrony, did not have electrophysiological frequency-following responses synchronized to an octave of musical notes, with fundamental frequencies ranging from 65 to 130 Hz. A control subject had robust responses that phaselocked to each note. Although auditory cortex may contribute to the scalp-recorded frequency-following response in healthy listeners, our results suggest this phenomenon depends on subcortical neural synchrony.
AB - Frequency-following responses to musical notes spanning the octave 65-130 Hz were elicited in a person with auditory neuropathy, a disorder of subcortical neural synchrony, and a control subject. No phaselocked responses were observed in the person with auditory neuropathy. The control subject had robust responses synchronized to the fundamental frequency and its harmonics. Cortical onset responses to each note in the series were present in both subjects. These results support the hypothesis that subcortical neural synchrony is necessary to generate the frequency-following response-including for stimulus frequencies at which a cortical contribution has been noted. Although auditory cortex ensembles may synchronize to fundamental frequency cues in speech and music, subcortical neural synchrony appears to be a necessary antecedent. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A listener with auditory neuropathy, an absence of subcortical neural synchrony, did not have electrophysiological frequency-following responses synchronized to an octave of musical notes, with fundamental frequencies ranging from 65 to 130 Hz. A control subject had robust responses that phaselocked to each note. Although auditory cortex may contribute to the scalp-recorded frequency-following response in healthy listeners, our results suggest this phenomenon depends on subcortical neural synchrony.
KW - Auditory neuropathy
KW - Auditory processing
KW - Electrophysiology
KW - Frequency-following response
KW - Subcortical
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U2 - 10.1152/JN.00104.2020
DO - 10.1152/JN.00104.2020
M3 - Article
C2 - 33206575
AN - SCOPUS:85100359753
SN - 0022-3077
VL - 125
SP - 273
EP - 281
JO - Journal of neurophysiology
JF - Journal of neurophysiology
IS - 1
ER -