Dynamics of a temporo-fronto-parietal network during sustained spatial or spectral auditory processing

Animal and human studies have suggested that posterior temporal, parietal, and frontal regions are specifically involved in auditory spatial (location and motion) processing, forming a putative dorsal "where'' pathway. We used scalp EEG and current density mapping to investigate the dynamics of this network in human subjects presented with a varying acoustic work stream in a two-factor paradigm: spatial versus pitch variations, focused versus diverted attention. The main findings were: (i) a temporo-parieto-frontal network was activated during the whole duration of the stream in all conditions and modulated by attention; (ii) the left superior temporal cortex was the only region showing different activations for pitch and spatial variations. Therefore, parietal and frontal regions would be involved in task-related processes (attention and motor preparation), whereas the differential processing of acoustic spatial and object-related features seems to take place at the temporal level.