ABSTRACT

Auditory cortex, similar to other sensory cortices, is generally considered to be unimodal, that is, to be involved in processing and representing various aspects of sound. In this article we attempt to give an overview on studies on awake animals, including humans, that challenge this view and that show that early auditory cortical areas are affected by a host of non-acoustic factors. The influence can be of sensory but non-auditory origin, can be of non-sensory origin, and can be related to movements. The functional consequences of non-acoustic influences are far from being understood. Still they clearly indicate that auditory cortex cannot be considered to be merely a sophisticated analyzer of sound that provides a reliable representation of the acoustic environment. Rather the analysis in auditory cortex also seems to involve the multimodal context of sounds, the significance of sound, and the behavioral consequences of sound.