ABSTRACT
It is generally accepted, that the human auditory cortex consists of various anatomically and functionally distinct areas located in the dorsal (anterior: planum polare Pp; central: Heschl’s gyrus HG; posterior: planum temporale Pt) and lateral parts of the superior temporal gyrus (STG) as well as in the inferior parietal lobule (Belin & Zatorre, 2000; Griffiths & Warren, 2002; Morosan et al., 2001; Warren & Griffiths, 2003; Zatorre et al., 2002). Amongst these different auditory fields, the putative primary auditory cortex (PAC) is found on the transverse gyrus (Heschl’s gyrus) of the STG (Clarke & Rivier, 1998; Hackett et al., 2001; Rademacher et al., 2001, 2002). However, there is no agreement on the number, extent and nomenclature of human auditory areas. Furthermore, the functions of the different anatomically defined putative auditory areas in the human cortex are not known in sufficient detail.
