Weinberger Norman M
Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Center for Hearing Research, and Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
Otolaryngol (Sunnyvale). 2012 Mar 12;Suppl 3. doi: 10.4172/2161-119X.S3-002.
Standard beliefs that the function of the primary auditory cortex (A1) is the analysis of sound have proven to be incorrect. Its involvement in learning, memory and other complex processes in both animals and humans is now well-established, although often not appreciated. Auditory coding is strongly modifed by associative learning, evident as associative representational plasticity (ARP) in which the representation of an acoustic dimension, like frequency, is re-organized to emphasize a sound that has become behaviorally important. For example, the frequency tuning of a cortical neuron can be shifted to match that of a significant sound and the representational area of sounds that acquire behavioral importance can be increased. ARP depends on the learning strategy used to solve an auditory problem and the increased cortical area confers greater strength of auditory memory. Thus, primary auditory cortex is involved in cognitive processes, transcending its assumed function of auditory stimulus analysis. The implications for basic neuroscience and clinical auditory neuroscience are presented and suggestions for remediation of auditory processing disorders are introduced.
认为初级听觉皮层（A1）的功能是声音分析的传统观念已被证明是错误的。现在已经充分证实，它在动物和人类的学习、记忆及其他复杂过程中都有参与，尽管这一点常常未得到重视。听觉编码会因联想学习而受到强烈改变，这表现为联想表征可塑性（ARP），即像频率这样的声学维度的表征会被重新组织，以强调已在行为上变得重要的声音。例如，皮层神经元的频率调谐可以发生改变，以匹配重要声音的频率调谐，并且在行为上变得重要的声音的表征区域会增大。ARP取决于用于解决听觉问题的学习策略，而增大的皮层区域会赋予更强的听觉记忆。因此，初级听觉皮层参与认知过程，超越了其假定的听觉刺激分析功能。本文介绍了对基础神经科学和临床听觉神经科学的影响，并提出了针对听觉加工障碍的矫治建议。
