Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Neural Basis of Auditory Perception and Learning

Our long-term goal is to understand neural mechanisms responsible for auditory perception and learning in the cerebral cortex, in particular the perception and learning of communication sounds (e.g. human speech and primate vocalizations). Perception of communication sounds is one of the most important behaviors of humans and higher order mammals and is crucial for their survival and well-being. Understanding cortical mechanisms responsible for perceiving communication sounds will undoubtedly open windows on our understanding of human language perception. Because of the behavioral importance of the communication sounds, their neural representations in the cerebral cortex provide invaluable insights into not only how the cortex encodes these and other complex sounds, but also how the cortical codes emerge through development and learning. We use a combination of behavioral, neurophysiological, anatomical and computational techniques to address these problems in a vocal primate model. Current research covers the following areas: (1) Neural encoding of species-specific vocalizations in the auditory cortex. (2) Cortical mechanisms for processing time-varying signals. (3) Neural mechanisms underlying vocal production and auditory-vocal interaction in primates. (4) Developmental and experience-dependent plasticity in primate vocalizations.