The multisensory roles for auditory cortex in primate vocal communication

Primate vocal communication is a fundamentally multisensory behavior and this will be reflected in the different roles brain regions play in mediating it. Auditory cortex is illustrative, being influenced, I will argue, by the visual, somatosensory, proprioceptive and motor modalities during vocal communication. It is my intention that the data reviewed here suggest that investigating auditory cortex through the lens of a specific behavior may lead to a much clearer picture of its functions and dynamic organization. One possibility is that, beyond its tonotopic and cytoarchitectural organization. the auditory cortex may be organized according to ethologically-relevant actions. Such action-specific representations would be overlayed on top of traditional mapping schemes and would help mediate motor and multisensory processes related to a particular type of behavior. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.