Sound analysis in auditory cortex.

Not so long ago, the auditory cortex took a back seat to the visual system in neuroscience research. With some notable exceptions outside the primate order, such as the classic work on echo-locating bats, owls and birdsong, the auditory cortex has been overlooked: only a few investigators were involved in understanding the structure and function of the monkey auditory cortex, and even fewer had the means to study its human counterpart. This situation has undergone a dramatic change in the past decade or so. Spurred on by advances in primate neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, and especially by developments in functional neuroimaging, substantial progress is now being made into understanding how the human auditory cortical system works.