Toward a Theory of Information Processing in Auditory Cortex

It has not been clear whether or not early information processing in the human auditory cortex is altered by voluntary movements. We report a movement-related, complex event-related potential consisting of relatively long-lasting amplitude and phase perturbations induced in an ongoing auditory steady-state response (SSR) by brief self-paced finger movements. Our results suggest that processing in the auditory cortex during the first 50-100 ms after stimulus delivery is affected before, during, and after voluntary movements, beginning with a 1- to 2-ms delay in the SSR wave form starting 1-2 s before the movement.

Neural tracking as a diagnostic tool to assess the auditory pathway

One in 15 school age children have dyslexia, which is characterized by phoneme-processing problems and difficulty learning to read. Dyslexia is associated with mutations in the gene KIAA0319. It is not known whether reduced expression of KIAA0319 can degrade the brain's ability to process phonemes. In the current study, we used RNA interference (RNAi) to reduce expression of Kiaa0319 (the rat homolog of the human gene KIAA0319) and evaluate the effect in a rat model of phoneme discrimination. Speech discrimination thresholds in normal rats are nearly identical to human thresholds. We recorded multiunit neural responses to isolated speech sounds in primary auditory cortex (A1) of rats that received in utero RNAi of Kiaa0319. Reduced expression of Kiaa0319 increased the trial-by-trial variability of speech responses and reduced the neural discrimination ability of speech sounds. Intracellular recordings from affected neurons revealed that reduced expression of Kiaa0319 increased neural excitability and input resistance. These results provide the first evidence that decreased expression of the dyslexia-associated gene Kiaa0319 can alter cortical responses and impair phoneme processing in auditory cortex.

Studies of cortical connections or neuronal function in different cerebral areas support the hypothesis that parallel cortical processing streams, similar to those identified in visual cortex, may exist in the auditory system. However, this model has not yet been behaviorally tested. We used reversible cooling deactivation to investigate whether the individual regions in cat nonprimary auditory cortex that are responsible for processing the pattern of an acoustic stimulus or localizing a sound in space could be doubly dissociated in the same animal. We found that bilateral deactivation of the posterior auditory field resulted in deficits in a sound-localization task, whereas bilateral deactivation of the anterior auditory field resulted in deficits in a pattern-discrimination task, but not vice versa. These findings support a model of cortical organization that proposes that identifying an acoustic stimulus ('what') and its spatial location ('where') are processed in separate streams in auditory cortex.

Clinical reasoning assessment is an essential component of determining a health professional’s competence. Clinical reasoning cannot be assessed directly. It must be gleaned from a health professional’s choices and decisions. Clinical knowledge and knowledge organization, rather than a general problem solving process, serve as the substrate for clinical reasoning ability. Unfortunately, the lack of a gold standard for the clinical reasoning process and the observation of context specificity make it difficult to assess clinical reasoning. Information processing theory, which focuses on the way the brain processes and organizes knowledge, has provided valuable insights into the cognitive psychology of diagnostic and therapeutic reasoning but failed to explain the variance in health professional’s diagnostic performance. Situativity theory has emerged suggesting that this variance relates to context-specific factors that impact a health professional’s clinical reasoning performance. Both information processing and situativity theory inform the way in which we assess clinical reasoning. Current assessment methods focus on standardized testing of knowledge to maximize psychometric parameters and work-based assessments which evaluate clinical reasoning under authentic, uncertain conditions that can decrease the reliability of these measurements. Issues of inter-rater reliability and context specificity require that multiple raters assess multiple encounters in multiple contexts to optimize validity and reliability. No single assessment method can assess all aspects of clinical reasoning; therefore, in order to improve the quality of assessments of clinical reasoning ability, different combinations of methods that measure different components of the clinical reasoning process are needed.

Behavior exerts a strong influence over sensory responses in the brain. In the auditory cortex, neural responses to self-generated sounds are suppressed, suggesting that prediction may play a critical role in local sensory processing. However, it is unclear whether this phenomenon derives from a precise movement-based prediction or how it affects the neural representation of incoming stimuli. We address these questions by designing a behavioral paradigm where mice learn to expect the predictable acoustic consequences of a simple forelimb movement. Dense neuronal recordings from auditory cortex revealed suppression of neural responses that was strongest for the expected tone during a narrow time window surrounding the specific sound-associated movement. Predictive suppression was concentrated in layers 2/3 and 5, preceded by the arrival of movement information in deep layers, and driven by motor-sensory coupling rather than task engagement, behavioral relevance, or reward association. Despite large-scale suppression at the population level, the auditory cortex retained a sparse representation of the expected self-generated sounds, while a substantial population of auditory cortex neurons in L2/3 and L5 encoded prediction errors. These findings illustrate that expectation, learned through motor-sensory experience, drives layer-specific predictive processing in the mouse auditory cortex.

Distributed processing and cortical specialization for speech and environmental sounds in human temporal cortex

Abnormal auditory neuromagnetic M50 and M100 responses, reflecting primary/secondary auditory cortex processing, have been reported in children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some studies have reported an association between delays in these responses and language impairment. However, as most prior research has focused on verbal individuals with ASD without cognitive impairment, rather little is known about neural activity during auditory processing in minimally verbal or nonverbal children who have ASD (ASD-MVNV)—children with little or no speech and often significant cognitive impairment. To understand the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying auditory processing in ASD-MVNV children, magnetoencephalography (MEG) measured M50 and M100 responses arising from left and right superior temporal gyri during tone stimuli in three cohorts: (1) MVNV children who have ASD (ASD-MVNV), (2) verbal children who have ASD and no intellectual disability (ASD-V), and (3) typically developing (TD) children. One hundred and five participants (8–12 years) were included in the final analyses (ASD-MVNV: n = 16, 9.85 ± 1.32 years; ASD-V: n = 55, 10.64 ± 1.31 years; TD: n = 34, 10.18 ± 1.36 years). ASD-MVNV children showed significantly delayed M50 and M100 latencies compared to TD. These delays tended to be greater than the corresponding delays in verbal children with ASD. Across cohorts, delayed latencies were associated with language and communication skills, assessed by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale Communication Domain. Findings suggest that auditory cortex neural activity measures could be dimensional objective indices of language impairment in ASD for either diagnostic (e.g., via threshold or cutoff) or prognostic (considering the continuous variable) use.

Synaptic interactions and inhibitory regulation in auditory cortex

This article explores how digital procurement can significantly enhance supply chain resilience, drawing on the lens of Information Processing Theory (IPT). In an increasingly volatile and complex global environment, supply chains face heightened risks of disruption, requiring firms to improve their ability to acquire, process, and act upon critical information. Digital procurement technologies, including advanced analytics, cloud platforms, and artificial intelligence, expand the information-processing capabilities of organizations by enabling superior data integration, transparency, and collaborative decision-making. Through a theoretical discussion anchored in IPT, this paper elucidates how digital procurement reduces information asymmetry and increases processing speed and accuracy, thereby supporting more agile and robust responses to supply chain disruptions. The article systematically analyzes mechanisms such as real-time data sharing, predictive analytics, and automation of procurement processes, highlighting their roles in enhancing situational awareness and response capabilities. Moreover, it discusses how digital procurement facilitates coordination across diverse supply network actors, strengthening collective resilience. The study contributes to the literature by integrating IPT with digital procurement research, offering a novel conceptual framework to explain the linkages between technology-enabled information processing and supply chain resilience. This perspective underscores the importance of investing in digital procurement not merely as an efficiency driver but as a critical enabler of strategic resilience. Implications for managers and policymakers are also discussed, emphasizing the need to prioritize digital transformation initiatives that enhance information flow and processing throughout the supply chain. Overall, this article offers valuable theoretical and practical insights into leveraging digital procurement to build more resilient and adaptive supply chains.

Modulation of auditory temporal processing, speech in noise perception, auditory-verbal memory, and reading efficiency by anodal tDCS in children with dyslexia

Interaural time differences (ITDs) are the dominant cue for the localization of low-frequency sounds. While much is known about the processing of ITDs in the auditory brainstem and midbrain, there have been relatively few studies of ITD processing in auditory cortex. In this study, we compared the neural representation of ITDs in the inferior colliculus (IC) and primary auditory cortex (A1) of gerbils. Our IC results were largely consistent with previous studies, with most cells responding maximally to ITDs that correspond to the contralateral edge of the physiological range. In A1, however, we found that preferred ITDs were distributed evenly throughout the physiological range without any contralateral bias. This difference in the distribution of preferred ITDs in IC and A1 had a major impact on the coding of ITDs at the population level: while a labeled-line decoder that considered the tuning of individual cells performed well on both IC and A1 responses, a two-channel decoder based on the overall activity in each hemisphere performed poorly on A1 responses relative to either labeled-line decoding of A1 responses or two-channel decoding of IC responses. These results suggest that the neural representation of ITDs in gerbils is transformed from IC to A1 and have important implications for how spatial location may be combined with other acoustic features for the analysis of complex auditory scenes.

This article seeks to integrate two concepts, motor heuristics (Raab, 2017. Motor heuristics and embodied choices: How to choose and act. Current Opinion in Psychology, 16, 34–37) and movement analogies (Masters, 2000. Theoretical aspects of implicit learning in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 31(4), 530–541), into a new theory: the Theory of Simplified Information Processing during Actions. Following the two-step theory integration programme proposed by Gigerenzer (2017. A theory integration program. Decision, 4(3), 133–145), we first describe the commonalities and differences between empirical phenomena associated with motor heuristics and movement analogies, and then analyse how the two concepts produce functionally equivalent outcomes. Both motor heuristics and movement analogies try to explain how actions can be performed with minimal cognitive effort, especially in circumstances where information overload may occur. They emphasise the power of simplicity, postulating that “less-is-more” when it comes to the information that needs to be processed to enable successful sports performance. The functionally equivalent outcome of simplified information processing is achieved by different cognitive means: Motor heuristics simplify movement selection by rank ordering information, whereas movement analogies are thought to simplify movement execution by chunking information. Empirically testing the predictions and assumed mechanisms of the Theory of Simplified Information Processing during Actions will improve our understanding of how humans effectively select and execute movements in situations in which information processing demands are high. Understanding how information is efficiently processed to guide actions will allow practitioners to develop effective evidence-based interventions that help to stabilise and improve performance in demanding sports settings.

This study explored whether benzodiazepines selectively affect aspects of attention and/or visual information processing, as they do memory. A cued visual-search paradigm was employed, using normal volunteers and a single dose of triazolam. This paradigm provided for a detailed examination of two aspects of visual attention and information processing: 1) controlled versus automatic attention allocation (via central and peripheral cues), and 2) the extent to which processing an item in a non-cued location affects performance (via cue-validity). Triazolam, compared to placebo, significantly increased response time, and Drug Condition interacted with Cue-Validity but not Cue-Type. Based on these data, we argue that triazolam does not affect attention allocation but does affect attentional disengagement and/or attention switching mechanisms.

Activations of human auditory cortex to phonemic and nonphonemic vowels during discrimination and memory tasks