The Neuronal Representation of Pitch in Primate Auditory Cortex

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2005 Aug 27

PMID 16121182

Citations 253

Authors

Daniel Bendor

Xiaoqin Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Pitch perception is critical for identifying and segregating auditory objects, especially in the context of music and speech. The perception of pitch is not unique to humans and has been experimentally demonstrated in several animal species. Pitch is the subjective attribute of a sound's fundamental frequency (f(0)) that is determined by both the temporal regularity and average repetition rate of its acoustic waveform. Spectrally dissimilar sounds can have the same pitch if they share a common f(0). Even when the acoustic energy at f(0) is removed ('missing fundamental') the same pitch is still perceived. Despite its importance for hearing, how pitch is represented in the cerebral cortex is unknown. Here we show the existence of neurons in the auditory cortex of marmoset monkeys that respond to both pure tones and missing fundamental harmonic complex sounds with the same f(0), providing a neural correlate for pitch constancy. These pitch-selective neurons are located in a restricted low-frequency cortical region near the anterolateral border of the primary auditory cortex, and is consistent with the location of a pitch-selective area identified in recent imaging studies in humans.

Citing Articles

Cortical processing of discrete prosodic patterns in continuous speech.

Gnanateja G, Rupp K, Llanos F, Hect J, German J, Teichert T Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1947.

PMID: 40032850 PMC: 11876672. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56779-w.

Reduced Neural Responses to Natural Foreground versus Background Sounds in the Auditory Cortex.

Hamersky G, Shaheen L, Espejo M, Wingert J, David S J Neurosci. 2025; 45(10).

PMID: 39837664 PMC: 11884389. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0121-24.2024.

Temporally Dissociable Neural Representations of Pitch Height and Chroma.

Chang A, Poeppel D, Teng X J Neurosci. 2025; 45(8).

PMID: 39794127 PMC: 11841769. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1567-24.2024.

Pleasantness makes a good time: musical consonance shapes interpersonal synchronization in dyadic joint action.

Lazzari G, Sacheli L, Benoit C, Lega C, van Vugt F Front Hum Neurosci. 2024; 18:1472632.

PMID: 39502786 PMC: 11534602. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1472632.

Neural representations of beat and rhythm in motor and association regions.

Hoddinott J, Grahn J Cereb Cortex. 2024; 34(10).

PMID: 39390710 PMC: 11466846. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae406.

References

Lu T, Liang L, Wang X . Temporal and rate representations of time-varying signals in the auditory cortex of awake primates. Nat Neurosci. 2001; 4(11):1131-8. DOI: 10.1038/nn737. View

Cedolin L, Delgutte B . Pitch of complex tones: rate-place and interspike interval representations in the auditory nerve. J Neurophysiol. 2005; 94(1):347-62. PMC: 2094528. DOI: 10.1152/jn.01114.2004. View

Schulze H, Hess A, Ohl F, Scheich H . Superposition of horseshoe-like periodicity and linear tonotopic maps in auditory cortex of the Mongolian gerbil. Eur J Neurosci. 2002; 15(6):1077-84. DOI: 10.1046/j.1460-9568.2002.01935.x. View

Patterson R, Uppenkamp S, Johnsrude I, Griffiths T . The processing of temporal pitch and melody information in auditory cortex. Neuron. 2002; 36(4):767-76. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(02)01060-7. View

Rauschecker J, Tian B . Processing of band-passed noise in the lateral auditory belt cortex of the rhesus monkey. J Neurophysiol. 2004; 91(6):2578-89. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00834.2003. View

Warrier C, Zatorre R . Right temporal cortex is critical for utilization of melodic contextual cues in a pitch constancy task. Brain. 2004; 127(Pt 7):1616-25. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awh183. View

Penagos H, Melcher J, Oxenham A . A neural representation of pitch salience in nonprimary human auditory cortex revealed with functional magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci. 2004; 24(30):6810-5. PMC: 1794212. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0383-04.2004. View

McAlpine D . Neural sensitivity to periodicity in the inferior colliculus: evidence for the role of cochlear distortions. J Neurophysiol. 2004; 92(3):1295-311. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00034.2004. View

Pollack I . Detection and relative discrimination of auditory "jitter". J Acoust Soc Am. 1968; 43(2):308-15. DOI: 10.1121/1.1910780. View

10.

Epple G . Comparative studies on vocalization in marmoset monkeys (Hapalidae). Folia Primatol (Basel). 1968; 8(1):1-40. DOI: 10.1159/000155129. View

11.

Goldstein J . An optimum processor theory for the central formation of the pitch of complex tones. J Acoust Soc Am. 1973; 54(6):1496-516. DOI: 10.1121/1.1914448. View

12.

Heffner H, WHITFIELD I . Perception of the missing fundamental by cats. J Acoust Soc Am. 1976; 59(4):915-9. DOI: 10.1121/1.380951. View

13.

WHITFIELD I . Auditory cortex and the pitch of complex tones. J Acoust Soc Am. 1980; 67(2):644-7. DOI: 10.1121/1.383889. View

14.

Tomlinson R, Schwarz D . Perception of the missing fundamental in nonhuman primates. J Acoust Soc Am. 1988; 84(2):560-5. DOI: 10.1121/1.396833. View

15.

Zatorre R . Pitch perception of complex tones and human temporal-lobe function. J Acoust Soc Am. 1988; 84(2):566-72. DOI: 10.1121/1.396834. View

16.

Pantev C, Hoke M, Lutkenhoner B, Lehnertz K . Tonotopic organization of the auditory cortex: pitch versus frequency representation. Science. 1989; 246(4929):486-8. DOI: 10.1126/science.2814476. View

17.

Schwarz D, Tomlinson R . Spectral response patterns of auditory cortex neurons to harmonic complex tones in alert monkey (Macaca mulatta). J Neurophysiol. 1990; 64(1):282-98. DOI: 10.1152/jn.1990.64.1.282. View

18.

Morel A, Kaas J . Subdivisions and connections of auditory cortex in owl monkeys. J Comp Neurol. 1992; 318(1):27-63. DOI: 10.1002/cne.903180104. View

19.

Morel A, Garraghty P, Kaas J . Tonotopic organization, architectonic fields, and connections of auditory cortex in macaque monkeys. J Comp Neurol. 1993; 335(3):437-59. DOI: 10.1002/cne.903350312. View

20.

Cariani P, Delgutte B . Neural correlates of the pitch of complex tones. I. Pitch and pitch salience. J Neurophysiol. 1996; 76(3):1698-716. DOI: 10.1152/jn.1996.76.3.1698. View