Spectral loudness summation takes place in the primary auditory cortex

Abstract

Auditory functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess neural activation in the human auditory brainstem (AB) and cortex (AC) as a function of bandwidth (BW). We recorded brain activation of 22 normal hearing listeners induced by band pass filtered pink noise stimuli with equal sound pressure level of 70 dB SPL. Tested bandwidths were 50, 500, 1,500, 3,000, 6,000, and 8,000 Hz. The center frequency was 4,000 Hz. Categorical loudness scaling had been performed in a silent booth with all of these stimuli. Loudness as a function of bandwidth followed a concave-shaped curve which reflected the influence of spectral loudness summation (SLS) for higher BW and the influence of large amplitude fluctuations for very low BW, which itself could be explained by peak-listening. While neural activation of the AB, as measured by the percent signal change from baseline (PSC), was tuned to the physical BW of the stimuli in a straight linear fashion, the trend of perceived loudness as a function of BW was reflected in several aspects by corresponding neural activation in the primary auditory cortex (PAC). Finally, from the absolute differences of the PSC between PAC and AB, gains in perceived loudness associated with SLS and the effect of large amplitude fluctuations could be predicted with an accuracy of 1-2 dB for the whole group of participants.