Functional neuroimaging of human central auditory processing in normal subjects and patients with neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders

Auditory sensory processing in the human cerebral cortex is disturbed in several neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, ranging from devastating perceptual deficits in neuropsychological syndromes such as cortical deafness and auditory agnosia to the problem of involuntary hallucinatory perception in schizophrenia. With modern non-invasive functional imaging techniques (e.g., PET, fMRI, and MEG), the normal auditory cortical functional anatomy can now be studied in humans in vivo, as well as its disruption in pathological conditions. This article will summarize current knowledge on human central auditory perception in health and disease, with an emphasis on recent functional neuroimaging studies, in the context of clinical and basic neuroscientific knowledge. New strategies include a focus on the role of other, nontemporal brain areas for auditory processing, particularly in the frontal lobes, and the combined use of techniques offering both precise spatial and temporal resolution. One step towards this goal has been the recent development of a silent, event-related fMRI scanning technique.