Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

NEUROSCIENCE

The asymmetric auditory cortex

Which side of the brain does what in speech and language processing is a debate that has engaged and divided the neuroscientific community for more than a century. A new study by Flinker et al. provides a more nuanced interpretation of how the left and right hemispheres of the brain process acoustic information important for speech processing.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Asymmetric processing of spectral and temporal modulations in the brain.

References

  1. Broca, P. Bulletin de la Société Anatomique 6, 330–357 (1861).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wernicke, C. Der aphasische Symptomencomplex: Eine psychologische Studie auf anatomischer Basis. (Cohn., 1874).

  3. Flinker A., Doyle W. K., Mehta A. D., Devinsky O., Poeppel D. Spectrotemporal modulation provides a unifying framework for auditory cortical asymmetries. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0548-z (2019).

  4. McGettigan, C. & Scott, S. K. Trends Cogn. Sci. 16, 269–276 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zatorre, R. J. & Belin, P. Cereb. Cortex 11, 946–953 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Poeppel, D. Speech Commun. 41, 245–255 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Elliott, T. M. & Theunissen, F. E. PLoS Comput. Biol. 5, e1000302 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Schönwiesner, M. & Zatorre, R. J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 14611–14616 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Hullett, P. W., Hamilton, L. S., Mesgarani, N., Schreiner, C. E. & Chang, E. F. J. Neurosci. 36, 2014–2026 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Geschwind, N. & Levitsky, W. Science 161, 186–187 (1968).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liberty S. Hamilton.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hamilton, L.S. The asymmetric auditory cortex. Nat Hum Behav 3, 327–328 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0582-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0582-x

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing