The Auditory Cortex
This volume is a summary and synthesis of the current state of auditory forebrain organization. It addresses a clinical and academic research area that has experienced substantial progress in understanding the contribution of the auditory forebrain (that
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Jeffery A. Winer · Christoph E. Schreiner Editors
The Auditory Cortex
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Editors Jeffery A. Winer Department of Molecular & Cell Biology University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA
Christoph E. Schreiner Coleman Memorial Laboratory Department of Otolaryngology University of California San Francisco, CA 94143-0732, USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-0073-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-0074-6 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-0074-6 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Photograph courtesy of Jane A. Winer Jeffery A. Winer (1945–2008) Scholar, scientist, colleague, mentor, friend
Photograph courtesy of Jane A. Winer
Preface
This volume is a summary and synthesis of the current state of auditory forebrain organization. We think it a timely contribution in view of the growing interest in this network as the arbiter for hearing, as a key element in the larger communications network that spans and links the parietal, temporal, and frontal cortices, and as a candidate for clinical intervention, whether through cochlear implants or more exotic upstream prostheses that, one day, may involve the forebrain more directly. The present account differs from the available efforts (Aitkin 1990; König et al. 2005) in two significant ways. First, the medial geniculate body is included as a full partner since it has cooperative, reciprocal, and robust relations with the auditory cortex that suggest a partnership in which the exclusion of either structure detracts from a functional portrait of their interactions. Second, our aim has been systematic and synoptic, including as it does a wide range of species, methods, subsystems, physiological perspectives, and functional architectures. We look back on 100 years of the discipline of auditory forebrain studies with a view to framing a future agenda. As new methods emerge and as older approaches exhaust their potential, it seems appropriate to attempt a summing up and to forge a prospectus for future work. We cannot present a full theory of auditory forebrain organization since the field is still so new as a discipline; that task we must leave to a later, more mature volume that recognizes the distributed nature of forebr
