Encoding of Illusory Continuity in Primary Auditory Cortex. Petkov, C. I, O'connor, K. N, & Sutter, M. L Neuron, 54(1):153-165, 2007.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
When interfering objects occlude a scene, the visual system restores the occluded information. Similarly, when a sound of interest (a "foreground" sound) is interrupted (occluded) by loud noise, the auditory system restores the occluded information. This process, called auditory induction, can be exploited to create a continuity illusion. When a segment of a foreground sound is deleted and loud noise fills the missing portion, listeners incorrectly report hearing the foreground continuing through the noise. Here we reveal the neurophysiological underpinnings of illusory continuity in single-neuron responses from awake macaque monkeys' primary auditory cortex (A1). A1 neurons represented the missing segment of occluded tonal foregrounds by responding to discontinuous foregrounds interrupted by intense noise as if they were responding to the complete foregrounds. By comparison, simulated peripheral responses represented only the noise and not the occluded foreground. The results reveal that many A1 single-neuron responses closely follow the illusory percept.
@Article{Petkov2007,
  author   = {Christopher I Petkov and Kevin N O'connor and Mitchell L Sutter},
  journal  = {Neuron},
  title    = {Encoding of {I}llusory {C}ontinuity in {P}rimary {A}uditory {C}ortex.},
  year     = {2007},
  number   = {1},
  pages    = {153-165},
  volume   = {54},
  abstract = {When interfering objects occlude a scene, the visual system restores
	the occluded information. Similarly, when a sound of interest (a
	"foreground" sound) is interrupted (occluded) by loud noise, the
	auditory system restores the occluded information. This process,
	called auditory induction, can be exploited to create a continuity
	illusion. When a segment of a foreground sound is deleted and loud
	noise fills the missing portion, listeners incorrectly report hearing
	the foreground continuing through the noise. Here we reveal the neurophysiological
	underpinnings of illusory continuity in single-neuron responses from
	awake macaque monkeys' primary auditory cortex (A1). A1 neurons represented
	the missing segment of occluded tonal foregrounds by responding to
	discontinuous foregrounds interrupted by intense noise as if they
	were responding to the complete foregrounds. By comparison, simulated
	peripheral responses represented only the noise and not the occluded
	foreground. The results reveal that many A1 single-neuron responses
	closely follow the illusory percept.},
  doi      = {10.1016/j.neuron.2007.02.031},
  keywords = {17408584},
}

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