AUDITORY COGNITION LAB

We seek to understand the neural correlates of auditory perception and cognition and their disturbance in neurological disorders. To this end, we use functional imaging techniques, including magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in combination with behavioral setups and eye-movement/pupil-width tracking. 

Our core interests include the neural basis of auditory scene analysis, perceptual awareness, and speech perception. For this research focus, we mostly study healthy participants using a number of different stimulus paradigms and functional imaging techniques. Our results demonstrated for example a close co-variation between the perceptual awareness of tone-patterns and activation in the auditory cortex. Beyond our interest in auditory cortex, we study attention systems and the contribution of the limbic system to evoked responses recorded in MEG and EEG. Recent results from our lab suggest that the P3 response observed during target detection is generated by a strong source in retro-splenial cortex, together with weaker sources in insula and hippocampus. The findings from this basic research are applied in our clinical research focus, where we study patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, focal cortical lesions, and hearing disorders.

(a) Combined MEG and EEG (M/EEF) maps of the auditory-evoked P3 in response to rare deviants shows activity in the retro-splenial cortex (RSC) and insula in the time window 300 - 500 ms after tone onset. Activity in left S1 is related to pressing a response button with the right hand. In the time window 500 - 800 ms, activity is additionally observed in the anterior part of the mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC). (b) fMRI confirms activity in the same areas and shows some activity beyond, using the same stimuli and participants. However, the activity in RSC, insula, and aMCC - which was observed in M/EEG - is by far strongest. The combination of techniques thus confirms the prominent role of RSC for the generation of the P3. The role of RSC was further supported by a number of simulation studies (see Das et al 2024 for details).

Doll L, Heiland S, Gutschalk A (2025) A role of pupil-linked arousal, cingulo-insular cortex, and intralaminar thalamus for auditory near-threshold perception. J. Cogn. Neurosci., 37:1391-1415.

Liang M, Gerwien J, Gutschalk A (2025) A listening advantage for native speech is reflected by attention-related activity in auditory cortex. Commun. Biol., 8:180.

Doll L, Dykstra AR, Gutschalk A (2024) Perceptual awareness of near-threshold tones scales gradually with pupil dilation and auditory cortex activity. iScience, 27:110530.

Das D, Shaw M, Hämäläinen MS, Dykstra AR, Doll L, Gutschalk A (2024) A role for retro-splenial cortex in the task-related P3 network. Clin. Neurophysiol., 157:96-109.

Gärtner K, Gutschalk A (2021) Auditory cortex activity related to perceptual awareness versus masking of tone sequences. NeuroImage, 228:117681. 

Wiegand K, Heiland S, Uhlig CH, Dykstra AR, Gutschalk A (2018) Cortical networks for auditory detection with and without informational masking: task effects and implications for conscious perception. NeuroImage, 167:178-190.

Dykstra AR, Gutschalk A (2015) Does the mismatch negativity operate on a consciously accessible memory trace? Sci. Adv., 1:e1500677.

Gutschalk A, Uppenkamp S, Riedel B, Bartsch A, Brand T, Vogt-Schaden M (2015) Pure word deafness with auditory agnosia after bilateral lesion of the superior temporal sulcus. Cortex, 73:24-35.

Steinmann I, Gutschalk A (2011) FMRI correlates of 40-Hz phase locking in primary auditory cortex, thalamus and midbrain. NeuroImage, 54:495-504.

Gutschalk A, Micheyl C, Oxenham AJ (2008) Neural correlates of auditory awareness under informational masking. PLoS Biol., 6:e138.

Gutschalk A, Micheyl C, Melcher JR, Rupp A, Scherg M, Oxenham AJ (2005) Neuromagnetic correlates of streaming in human auditory cortex. J. Neurosci., 25:5382-5388.

Gutschalk A, Patterson RD, Rupp A, Uppenkamp S, Scherg M (2002) Sustained magnetic fields reveal separate sites for sound level and temporal regularity in human auditory cortex. NeuroImage 15:207-216.