Ko. Bushara et al., Modality-specific frontal and parietal areas for auditory and visual spatial localization in humans, NAT NEUROSC, 2(8), 1999, pp. 759-766
Although the importance of the posterior parietal and prefrontal regions in
spatial localization of visual stimuli is well established, their role in
auditory space perception is less clear. Using positron emission tomography
(PET) during auditory and visual spatial localization in the same subjects
, modality-specific areas were identified in the superior parietal lobule,
middle temporal and lateral prefrontal cortices. These findings suggest tha
t, similar to the visual system, the hierarchical organization of the audit
ory system extends beyond the temporal lobe to include areas in the posteri
or parietal and prefrontal regions specialized in auditory spatial processi
ng. Our results may explain the dissociation of visual and auditory spatial
localization deficits following lesions involving these regions.