Contribution
Brain activity discriminates acoustic simulations of the same environment
* Presenting author
Abstract:
In complex acoustic environments, sound localization involves the integration of numerous interrelated auditory and cognitive cues, making it challenging to understand their relationship to brain activity.Here, we use virtual acoustics to probe the brain’s response to auditory distance cues in a realistic environment.We developed a system to record the actual MRI environment, simulated the same room with different degrees of accuracy then presented sounds at one of two locations in the room. We implemented a novel auditory fMRI sequence to record brain activity.Despite only minor differences in acoustics between the auralizations, it was possible to decode all three rooms from brain activity.Brain activity was then compared to the parameters of the acoustic analysisusing representational similarity analysis (RSA). The DRR was the only acoustic parameterthat made a relevant contribution to brain activity. The locus of activity was in the posteriorauditory cortex (AC). The results provide strong evidence that the posterior AC processes DRR for spatial auditory perception.