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Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time.

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Title:	Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time.
Authors:	Norman-Haignere, Sam V. (AUTHOR), Keshishian, Menoua (AUTHOR), Devinsky, Orrin (AUTHOR), Doyle, Werner (AUTHOR), McKhann, Guy M. (AUTHOR), Schevon, Catherine A. (AUTHOR), Flinker, Adeen (AUTHOR), Mesgarani, Nima (AUTHOR)
Source:	Nature Neuroscience. Nov2025, Vol. 28 Issue 11, p2356-2365. 10p.
Abstract:	Sound structures such as phonemes and words have highly variable durations. Therefore, there is a fundamental difference between integrating across absolute time (for example, 100 ms) versus sound structure (for example, phonemes). Auditory and cognitive models have traditionally cast neural integration in terms of time and structure, respectively, but the extent to which cortical computations reflect time or structure remains unknown. Here, to answer this question, we rescaled the duration of all speech structures using time stretching and compression and measured integration windows in the human auditory cortex using a new experimental and computational method applied to spatiotemporally precise intracranial recordings. We observed slightly longer integration windows for stretched speech, but this lengthening was very small (~5%) relative to the change in structure durations, even in non-primary regions strongly implicated in speech-specific processing. These findings demonstrate that time-yoked computations dominate throughout the human auditory cortex, placing important constraints on neurocomputational models of structure processing. Temporal integration throughout the human auditory cortex is predominantly locked to absolute time and does not vary with the duration of speech structures such as phonemes or words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Description
Abstract:	Sound structures such as phonemes and words have highly variable durations. Therefore, there is a fundamental difference between integrating across absolute time (for example, 100 ms) versus sound structure (for example, phonemes). Auditory and cognitive models have traditionally cast neural integration in terms of time and structure, respectively, but the extent to which cortical computations reflect time or structure remains unknown. Here, to answer this question, we rescaled the duration of all speech structures using time stretching and compression and measured integration windows in the human auditory cortex using a new experimental and computational method applied to spatiotemporally precise intracranial recordings. We observed slightly longer integration windows for stretched speech, but this lengthening was very small (~5%) relative to the change in structure durations, even in non-primary regions strongly implicated in speech-specific processing. These findings demonstrate that time-yoked computations dominate throughout the human auditory cortex, placing important constraints on neurocomputational models of structure processing. Temporal integration throughout the human auditory cortex is predominantly locked to absolute time and does not vary with the duration of speech structures such as phonemes or words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	10976256
DOI:	10.1038/s41593-025-02060-8