Where the human auditory pathway makes sense: the inferior colliculus as a gatekeeper for meaningful information

Human auditory circuits include the dorsal and ventral cochlear nuclei, the superior and medial olivary nuclei, the lateral lemniscal nucleus and the inferior colliculus, the medial geniculate body and the primary and secondary auditory cortex in the temporal plane. Aim of this fMRI study was to localize activations by a nonsense auditory broadband stimulus which covers all frequencies of human hearing in comparison to meaningful auditory information. The differential effects of a monaural auditory stimulation (white noise at 97 dB A while the contralateral ear was plugged) vs. natural or artifical sounds (speec…