Our group investigates the general principles of how the human brain processes auditory information, including studies of multisensory perception and advancing models of cognition. We primarily use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with the 3T scanner at the Center for Advanced Imaging (http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/cai/), but also use neurophysiological techniques such as collecting evoked response potentials (ERPs). One of our research goals is to understand how the human brain is organized to represent knowledge of sensory events, and be able to gain a sense of meaning behind what we see and hear. For instance, the rotating 3D model of the human brain (left cortical hemisphere) illustrating cortex that is more responsive to hearing and recognizing environmental sounds (Fig. 1, yellow) in contrast to hearing but not recognizing the same sounds played backwards. N=24 participants, <0.05).



Below are some of the forward and backward-played sound pairs, which can be heard by clicking on the icons. Can you identify the backward-played sounds?