Logo image
An information theoretic characterisation of auditory encoding
Journal article   Open access

An information theoretic characterisation of auditory encoding

Tobias Overath, Rhodri Cusack, Sukhbinder Kumar, Katharina Von Kriegstein, Jason D. Warren, Manon Grube, Robert P. Carlyon and Timothy D. Griffiths
PLoS biology, Vol.5(11), pp.2723-2732
11/01/2007
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050288
PMCID: PMC2039771
PMID: 17958472
url
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050288View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The entropy metric derived from information theory provides a means to quantify the amount of information transmitted in acoustic streams like speech or music. By systematically varying the entropy of pitch sequences, we sought brain areas where neural activity and energetic demands increase as a function of entropy. Such a relationship is predicted to occur in an efficient encoding mechanism that uses less computational resource when less information is present in the signal: we specifically tested the hypothesis that such a relationship is present in the planum temporale ( PT). In two convergent functional MRI studies, we demonstrated this relationship in PT for encoding, while furthermore showing that a distributed fronto-parietal network for retrieval of acoustic information is independent of entropy. The results establish PT as an efficient neural engine that demands less computational resource to encode redundant signals than those with high information content.
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Biology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics Science & Technology

Details

Metrics

202 readers on Mendeley
2 readers on CiteULike
Logo image