Ley, A. 1, 2 , Hausfeld, L. 1 , Vroomen, J. 2 , Valente, G. 1 , de Weerd, P. 1 & Formisano, E. 1
1 University of Maastricht
2 Tilburg University
Mapping different sounds onto the same identity requires the extraction of relevant features for enhancing between-category and minimizing within-category differences. We used complex artificial sounds (ripples), fMRI and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate the relation between behavioral and neural changes in the course of category learning. Subjects were scanned twice during passive listening, once before category training and once after successful learning of pitch categories. Pre- and post-training classification accuracies were compared for the relevant (i.e. consistent with the behavioral categorization rule) and irrelevant stimulus labels. Sound identification curves gradually change into a sigmoid shape, reflecting successful category learning. MVPA revealed that the most discriminative voxels were highly distributed over the auditory cortex, and included locations of early auditory areas. Perceptual changes associated with feature specific category learning are thus accompanied by specific changes in the cortical sound representations.