Abstract:
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) represents a non-invasive method to investigate auditory evoked fields (AEF) generated by intracellular currents of neurons in the auditory cortex. Source analysis of AEF allows to separate the specific responses of multiple and temporal overlapping generators that are elicited by complex tones. It will be shown that early and late AEF can be used to bridge the gap between perception as derived from psychoacoustics and auditory models which are based on simulated spike patterns of the auditory nerve. The combination of these techniques might be used to assess and improve models that account for the perception of pitch, size, family (vowels or instruments), and masking properties.