Logo image
Back
Stimulus-driven and behavior-driving activity along the cortical auditory hierarchy
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Stimulus-driven and behavior-driving activity along the cortical auditory hierarchy

Kirill V. Nourski, Mitchell Steinschneider, Ariane E. Rhone and Matthew A. Howard
NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.), Vol.328, 121801
03/01/2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.121801
PMCID: PMC12977194
PMID: 41687696
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.121801View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

•iEEG activity during listening can be time-locked to the stimulus or behavior.•Auditory cortex is exclusively stimulus-driven.•Behavior-locked activity is prominent in left prefrontal cortex.•Activity in right sensorimotor cortex is largely stimulus-driven.•Faster reaction times correlate with stimulus-driven iEEG activity. Auditory areas on the superior temporal plane and lateral convexity are key initial stages of speech processing in the human cortex, representing acoustic and phonetic attributes in a temporally precise manner. More complex representations in auditory-related cortex along the ventral and dorsal processing streams and prefrontal cortex are associated with perception and action. In this study, we used intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) to clarify where and how activity leading to perceptually driven behavioral events emerges. Participants were patients undergoing iEEG monitoring for medically intractable epilepsy. Stimuli were monosyllabic words, and participants pressed a button in response to a semantic target category. Significant high gamma activity after stimulus onset and immediately prior to motor response defined stimulus- and behavior-related activity patterns, respectively. The stimulus-related pattern was more common than behavior-related throughout the cortical auditory hierarchy as well as sensorimotor cortex. Behavior-related activity was sparsely represented, with the highest prevalence in the prefrontal cortex and a more limited representation in anterior temporal and parieto-occipital cortex. Hemispheric asymmetries included a higher prevalence of stimulus-related activity in the right sensorimotor cortex and a higher prevalence of the behavior-related pattern in the left prefrontal cortex. Faster behavioral responses were associated with greater stimulus-locked high gamma power in non-core auditory, prefrontal, and premotor cortex. Results reveal the cortical distribution of sensory stimulus-driven responses and activity time-locked to behavior and provide insights into neural substrates of speech perception.
 High gamma iEEG Semantic processing Speech

Details

Metrics

2 Record Views
Logo image