A physiologically based model for temporal envelope encoding in human primary auditory cortex

Temporal envelope is an important sound feature involved in sound identification and speech processing. In this work, an auditory pathway model that reproduces the response to amplitude modulated white noise at different physiological levels is proposed. More particularly, this study focuses on primary auditory cortex and the validation of the model is based on temporal modulation transfer function. Firstly, the model of the primary auditory cortex is tuned to reproduce background activity. Secondly, by varying coupling parameters between structures (medial geniculate body, thalamic reticular nucleus and primary auditory cortex), three classes of responses to amplitude modulated white noise observed in human primary auditory cortex are generated by the model. In spite of its simplicity, this model confirms the importance of interaction between thalamic and cortical structures in the temporal processing of sounds.