Tonotopy

The earliest evidence for tonotopic organization in auditory cortex was indicated by Vladimir E. Larionov in an 1899 paper entitled "On the musical centers of the brain", which suggested that lesions in an S-shaped trajectory resulted in failure to respond to tones of different frequencies. By the 1920s, cochlear anatomy had been described and the concept of tonotopicity had been introduced. At this time, Hungarian biophysicist, Georg von Békésy began further exploration of tonotopy in the auditory cortex. Békésy measured the cochlear traveling wave by opening up the cochlea widely and using a strobe light and microscope to visually observe the motion on a wide variety of animals including guinea pig, chicken, mouse, rat, cow, elephant, and human temporal bone. Importantly, Békésy found that different sound frequencies caused maximum wave amplitudes to occur at different places along the basilar membrane along the coil of the cochlea, which is the fundamental principle of tonotopy. Békésy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for Medicine for his work. In 1946, the first live demonstration of tonotopic organization in auditory cortex occurred at Johns Hopkins Hospital. More recently, advances in technology have allowed researchers to map the tonotopic organization in healthy human subjects using electroencephalographic (EEG) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data. While most human studies agree on the existence of a tonotopic gradient map in which low frequencies are represented laterally and high frequencies are represented medially around Heschl's gyrus, a more detailed map in human auditory cortex is not yet firmly established due to methodological limitations == Sensory mechanisms ==

Peripheral nervous system Cochlea Tonotopic organization in the cochlea forms throughout pre- and post-natal development through a series of changes that occur in response to auditory stimuli. Research suggests that the pre-natal establishment of tonotopic organization is partially guided by synaptic reorganization; however, more recent studies have shown that the early changes and refinements occur at both the circuit and subcellular levels. In mammals, after the inner ear is otherwise fully developed, the tonotopic map is then reorganized in order to accommodate higher and more specific frequencies. Research has suggested that the receptor guanylyl cyclase Npr2 is vital for the precise and specific organization of this tonotopy. Further experiments have demonstrated a conserved role of Sonic Hedgehog emanating from the notochord and floor plate in establishing tonotopic organization during early development. It is this proper tonotopic organization of the hair cells in the cochlea that allows for correct perception of frequency as the proper pitch. Structural organization In the cochlea, sound creates a traveling wave that moves from base to apex, increasing in amplitude as it moves along a tonotopic axis in the basilar membrane (BM). This pressure wave travels along the BM of the cochlea until it reaches an area that corresponds to its maximum vibration frequency; this is then coded as pitch. The height of hair bundles increases from base to apex and the number of stereocilia decreases (i.e. hair cells located at the base of the cochlea contain more stereo cilia than those located at the apex). In the hair bundle, gating springs determine the open probability of mechanoelectrical ion transduction channels: at higher frequencies, these elastic springs are subject to higher stiffness and higher mechanical tension in tip-links of hair cells. As noted above, basal cochlear hair cells have more stereocilia, thus providing more channels and larger currents. Finally, sound amplification is greater in the basal than in the apical cochlear regions because outer hair cells express the motor protein prestin, which amplifies vibrations and increases sensitivity of outer hair cells to lower sounds. tuning bandwidth, or modulation rate, but these have not been as well studied. In the midbrain, there exist two primary auditory pathways to the auditory cortex—the lemniscal classical auditory pathway and the extralemniscal non-classical auditory pathway. The lemniscal classical auditory pathway is tonotopically organized and consists of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus and the ventral medial geniculate body projecting to primary areas in the auditory cortex. The non-primary auditory cortex receives inputs from the extralemniscal non-classical auditory pathway, which shows a diffuse frequency organization. Auditory cortex region A2 and the anterior auditory field (AAF) both have tonotopic maps that run dorsoventrally. Studies using non-human primates have generated a hierarchical model of auditory cortical organization consisting of an elongated core consisting of three back-to-back tonotopic fields—the primary auditory field A1, the rostral field R, and the rostral temporal field RT. These regions are surrounded by belt fields (secondary) regions and higher-order parabelt fields. A1 exhibits a frequency gradient from high to low in the posterior-to-anterior direction; R exhibits a reverse gradient with characteristic frequencies from low to high in the posterior-to-anterior direction. RT has a less clearly organized gradient from high back to low frequencies. Tonotopic organization in the human auditory cortex has been studied using a variety of non-invasive imaging techniques including magneto- and electroencephalography (MEG/EEG), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The primary tonotopic map in the human auditory cortex is along Heschl's gyrus(HG). However, various researchers have reached conflicting conclusions about the direction of frequency gradient along HG. Some experiments found that tonotopic progression ran parallel along HG while others found that the frequency gradient ran perpendicularly across HG in a diagonal direction, forming an angled V-shaped pair of gradients. In mouse Primary Auditory Cortex (A1), different neurons respond to different ranges of frequencies with one particular frequency eliciting the largest response – this is known as the "best frequency" for a given neuron. Adult learning and critical period sensory manipulations induce comparable shifts in cortical topographies, and by definition adult learning results in increased perceptual abilities. The tonotopic development of A1 in mouse pups is therefore an important factor in understanding the neurological basis of auditory learning. Other species also show similar tonotopic development during critical periods. Rat tonotopic develop is nearly identical to mouse, but the critical period is shifted slightly earlier, Plasticity of auditory critical period The auditory critical period of rats, which lasts from postnatal day 11 (P11) to P13 It has been shown that subsets of the tonotopic map in A1 can be held in a plastic state indefinitely by exposing the rats to white noise consisting of frequencies within a particular range determined by the experimenter. A recent toxicity study showed that in-utero and postnatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) altered overall primary auditory cortex (A1) organization, including tonotopy and A1 topography. Early PCB exposure also changed the balance of excitatory and inhibitory inputs, which altered the ability of the auditory cortex to plastically reorganize after changes in the acoustic environment, thereby altering the critical period of auditory plasticity. Adult plasticity Studies in mature A1 have focused on neuromodulatory influences and have found that direct and indirect vagus nerve stimulation, which triggers neuromodulator release, promotes adult auditory plasticity. Cholinergic signaling has been shown to engage 5-HT3AR cell activity across cortical areas and facilitate adult auditory plasticity. Furthermore, behavioral training using rewarding or aversive stimuli, commonly known to engage cholinergic afferents and 5-HT3AR cells, has also been shown to alter and shift adult tonotopic maps. == See also ==