ABSTRACT
Sensory cortical activity is manifest in spatio-temporal patterns. These patterns are usually conceived as representations of stimuli in maps. Various lines of evidence suggest, however, that these map-based patterns also depend on the specific cognitive or behavioral purpose served by the cortical processing. Therefore, a broader concept of the function of sensory neocortex seems to be required. Several principles are illustrated, how bottom-up and top-down processing of stimuli convey in auditory cortex maps. Top-down functions, so far, have been addressed in terms of prefrontal, parietal and cingulate cortical areas which obviously control these functions. With respect to selective auditory percepts and perceptual comparisons, which are the objects of cognitive topdown processing, the executive influences from these areas seem to use special organizations of maps and to modify auditory cortical representations of stimuli in these maps.
