Individual Variability in Functional Organization of the Human and Monkey Auditory Cortex

Abstract

Accumulating evidence shows that auditory cortex (AC) of humans, and other primates, is involved in more complex cognitive processes than feature segregation only, which are shaped by experience-dependent plasticity and thus likely show substantial individual variability. However, thus far, individual variability of ACs has been considered a methodological impediment rather than a phenomenon of theoretical importance. Here, we examined the variability of ACs using intrinsic functional connectivity patterns in humans and macaques. Our results demonstrate that in humans, interindividual variability is greater near the nonprimary than primary ACs, indicating that variability dramatically increases across the processing hierarchy. ACs are also more variable than comparable visual areas and show higher variability in the left than in the right hemisphere, which may be related to the left lateralization of auditory-related functions such as language. Intriguingly, remarkably similar modality differences and lateralization of variability were also observed in macaques. These connectivity-based findings are consistent with a confirmatory task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis. The quantification of variability in auditory function, and the similar findings in both humans and macaques, will have strong implications for understanding the evolution of advanced auditory functions in humans.

Keywords: auditory cortex; functional connectivity; individual differences; nonhuman primate.