Kevin Sitek, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders
Northwestern University
Imaging the human auditory system: Anatomy, connectivity, and behavior
The central auditory system is comprised of a number of subcortical and cortical brain structures. While non-invasive methods like MRI and EEG have enabled detailed study of the human auditory cortex, imaging the deep, small subcortical auditory nuclei remains challenging. Fortunately, advances in non-invasive imaging are facilitating research into the entire human auditory system and how it’s involved in critical behaviors like speech communication. In this talk I’ll present my contributions to human auditory neuroimaging, including publicly available anatomical atlases of the subcortical auditory structures, their function, and the connectivity of the auditory pathway. I’ll then discuss recent work using these methods to probe auditory–striatal connectivity and its role in sound category learning. Finally, I’ll show how the EEG frequency-following response can provide insights into auditory–motor integration, with implications for speech production and feedback processing. Overall, this research advances our understanding of the human auditory system as a distributed network supporting complex behaviors, highlighting the value of multimodal neuroimaging in bridging brain structure and function.