How can we tell the sound of an alarm clock from a barking dog, or of an ambulance siren from a car horn? How do animals process vocalizations or humans process speech? How can we stand in a crowded cocktail party and understand one person's speech while our ears are bombarded with sounds from a barrage of sources: 100 other people talking, cell phones, air conditioners, glasses jingling, background music? To answer these questions we need a fundamental knowledge of hearing and how the brain analyzes sounds. Our lab's research focuses on these fundamental questions.

From reading a neurobiology textbook, one might get the impression that, with the exception of sound localization, most of hearing can be explained by the cochlea breaking sounds into different frequency or pitch components. There is a good reason for this predominant view. Most auditory physiology has focused on the cochlea and its output, the aspects of hearing; however little is now about what role the brainstem, midbrain, thalamus, and auditory cortex (for simplicity I will call these 'higher areas') play in sound perception. A goal of our research is to elucidate how 'higher' brain areas, contribute to hearing, with a particular emphasis on the role of auditory cortex. We believe 'higher' levels of the brain are essential for hearing in the complex environments encountered by all animals.

To pursue our goals, this lab emphasizes several themes. Theme (1) focuses on the importance of integrating the auditory nerve's output at 'higher' brain levels. Specifically, we have been demonstrating that the processing of complex sounds and auditory 'scenes' requires a conceptual expansion beyond the most commonly employed description of hearing: the critical band model. Theme (2) highlights how the auditory system non-linearly integrates sound element such as a complex chord or an individual syllable. Temporal properties refer to slower variations in time, such as putting together several notes to make a word. Theme (3) emphasized the functional organization of auditory cortex. To address these themes, we investigate auditory system performance through psychophysics, and underlying mechanisms by recording single neuron's responses to sound. Each employed species and experimental model has it's own unique advantages to address different questions.

Teaching Interests:
Neurobiology. Hearing. Modeling.

Publications:

Yin, P., Mishkin, M., Sutter M., and JB. Fritz (2008) Early Stages of Melody Processing: Stimulus-Sequence and Task-Dependent Neuronal Activity in Monkey Auditory Cortical Fields A1 and R. J Neurophysiol, 100: 3009 - 3029.

Recanzone, G.H. and Sutter, M.L. (2007). The Biological Basis of Hearing. Ann. Rev. Psych, 59:119-142.

 Petkov, C.I., O'Connor K.N., and Sutter, M.L. (2007). Encoding of illusory continuity in primary auditory cortex. Neuron, 54:153-165.

 Petkov CI, O'Connor KN, Benmoshe G, Baynes K, Sutter, M.L. (2005) Auditory perceptual grouping and attention in dyslexia. Cognitive Brain Research, 24(2):343-354.

Sutter, M.L. (2005) Spectral Processing in the Auditory Cortex. In Auditory Spectral Processing. Ed. by M.S. Malmierca and D.R. F. Irvine. International Review of Neurobiology 70: 253-298.

O'Connor, K.N., Petkov, C.I., and Sutter M.L. (2005) Adaptive stimulus optimization for auditory cortical neurons. J. Neurophysiol., 94: 4051-4067.

Petkov C,I., O'Connor K.N., Sutter M.L. (2003) Illusory Sound Perception in Macaque Monkeys. Journal of Neuroscience 21:9155-9161.

Sutter M.L., Loftus W.C. (2003) Excitatory and inhibitory intensity tuning in auditory cortex: evidence for multiple inhibitory mechanisms. J Neurophysiol 90:2629-2647.

O'Connor K.N., Sutter M.L. (2003) Auditory Temporal Integration in Primates: A Comparative Approach. In: Primate Audition Ethology and Neurobiology (Ghazanfar A, ed), pp 27-43. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

Loftus, W.C. and Sutter, M.L. (2001) Spectro-temporal organization of excitatory and inhibitory receptive fields of cat posterior auditory field neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 86: 475-491.

Sutter, M.L. (2000) Shapes and level tolerances of frequency tuning curves in primary auditory cortex: quantitative measures, and population codes. J. Neurophysiol. 84(2): 1012-1025

Sutter, M.L., Petkov, C., Baynes, K., O;Connor, K.N. (2000) Auditory scene analysis in dyslexics. Neuroreport. 11: 1967-1971

O’Connor, K.N., Barruel, P. and Sutter, M.L. (2000) Global processing of spectrally complex sounds in macaques (Macaca mullata) and humans. J. Comp. Physiol, 186:903-912.

O’Connor, K.N. and Sutter M.L. (2000). Global Spectral and Location Effects in Auditory Perceptual Grouping, J. Cognitive Neuroscience, 12(2): 342-354.

Schreiner, C.E., Read, H., and Sutter, M.L. (2000). Modular organization of frequency integration in cat auditory cortex. Annual Review Neuroscience 23: 501-529

O’Connor KN, PB Barruel, R Hajalilou, and ML Sutter. 1999. Auditory temporal integration in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 106:954-965

Sutter ML, CE Schreiner, M McLean, KN O’Connor, and WC Loftus. 1999. . Organization of inhibitory frequency receptive fields in cat primary auditory cortex. :in press

Recanzone, GH, Schreiner CE, Sutter ML, Beitel RE and Merzenich MM (1999) Functional organization of spectral receptive fields in the primary auditory cortex of the owl monkey. J. Comp. Neurol, 415:460-481