The brain is able to construct a view of the outside world from sound alone: it lets us listen to music and identify the location of each individual musician ; pick out a bassoon in an orchestra or follow the grand themes of a symphony; follow one person speaking amidst the cacophony of a room full of conversations. Yet the brain receives only two one-dimensional inputs: one from each ear. And even with one ear, we still perceive a world of discrete, separate sound sources. My research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying this remarkable feat. Recent developments in sensory neuroscience have provided direct evidence of how the central nervous system participates in conscious perception. Cutting edge technology allows us to record behavioural decisions and the activity of many neurons simultaneously. This effectively integrates neuroscience, psychophysics and cognition within a single experimental approach. My research programme is exploiting this technology, combined with computational modelling, to study the neural basis of auditory perception. The goal is to study the neural basis of signal detection, the grouping of sounds, and to tease apart the role of attention and of pre-attentive processes in listening to sound.
Publications
Coombes S, Thul R, Laudanski J, Palmer AR, Sumner CJ (2012) Neuronal spike-train responses in the presence of threshold noise: First passage times, stochastic mode-locking, and coding. Frontiers in Life Sciences, in press
Paltoglou AE, Sumner CJ, Hall DA (2011) Mapping feature-sensitivity and attentional modulation in human auditory cortex with functional magnetic resonance imaging. European Journal of Neuroscience 33(9), 1733-41 [Open Access Article (UKPMC)] [PubMed]
Scholes C, Palmer AR, Sumner CJ (2011) Forward suppression in the auditory cortex is frequency-specific. European Journal of Neuroscience 33(7), 1240-51 [Open Access Article (UKPMC)] [PubMed]
Wallace MN, Coomber B, Sumner CJ, Grimsley JM, Shackleton TM, Palmer AR (2011) Location of cells giving phase-locked responses to pure tones in the primary auditory cortex. Hearing research 274(1-2), 142-51 [PubMed] [DOI]
Irving S, Moore DR, Liberman MC, Sumner CJ (2011) Olivocochlear efferent control in sound localization and experience-dependent learning. Journal of Neuroscience 31(7), 2493-501 [Open Access Article] [PubMed]
Coombes S, Thul R, Laudanski J, Palmer AR, Sumner CJ, (2010) Neuronal spike-train responses in the presence of threshold noise. Frontiers in Life Sciences IF:1.7
Alves-Pinto A, Baudoux S, Palmer AR, Sumner CJ (2010) Forward masking estimated by signal detection theory analysis of neuronal responses in primary auditory cortex. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 11(3), 477-94 [Open Access Article (UKPMC)] [PubMed]
Laudanski J, Coombes S, Palmer AR, Sumner CJ (2010) Mode-locked spike trains in responses of ventral cochlear nucleus chopper and onset neurons to periodic stimuli. Journal of Neurophysiology 103(3), 1226-37 [Open Access Article] [PubMed]
Alves-Pinto A, Baudoux S, Palmer AR, Sumner CJ (2010) Neuronal measures of threshold and magnitude of forward masking in primary auditory cortex. From Lopez-Poveda EA, Palmer AR, Meddis R (Ed.), The Neurophysiological Bases of Auditory Perception
Paltoglou AE, Sumner CJ, Hall DA (2009) Examining the role of frequency specificity in the enhancement and suppression of human cortical activity by auditory selective attention. Hearing Research 257(1-2), 106-18 [PubMed] [DOI]
Sumner CJ, Scholes C, Snyder RL (2009) Retuning of inferior colliculus neurons following spiral ganglion lesions: a single-neuron model of converging inputs. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 10(1), 111-30 [Open Access Article (UKPMC)] [PubMed]
Sumner CJ, Meddis R, Winter IM (2009) The role of auditory nerve innervation and dendritic filtering in shaping onset responses in the ventral cochlear nucleus. Brain Research 1247, 221-34 [Open Access Article (UKPMC)] [PubMed]
Sumner CJ, Palmer AR, Moore DR (2008) The need for a cool head: reversible inactivation reveals functional segregation in auditory cortex. Nature Neuroscience 11(5), 530-1 [PubMed] [Link to Website*]
Moore DR, Palmer AR, Hall DA, Sumner CJ (2007) The Listening Brain. Special Issue of Hearing Research 229: Issues 1-2. Handbook of Cognition and Perception 229, Issues 1-2
Moore DR, Palmer AR, Hall DA, Sumner CJ (2007) Auditory Cortex 2006: the listening brain. Hearing Research 229, 1-156 [DOI]
Meddis R, Sumner CJ, Shore SE (2005) Effects of contralateral sound stimulation on forward masking in the guinea-pig. From Pressnitzer D, de Cheveigné A, McAdams S, Collett L (Ed.), Auditory Signal Processing. Physiology, Psychoacoustics and Models
Sumner CJ, Tucci DA, Shore SE (2005) Responses of Ventral Cochlear Nucleus Neurons to Contralateral Sound After Conductive Hearing Loss. Journal of Neurophysiology 94, 4234-4243 [Abstract]
Holmes SD, Sumner CJ, O'Mard LP, Meddis R (2004) The temporal representation of single- and double- vowels using a nonlinear model of the guinea-pig cochlea. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 116, 3534-3545 [Abstract]
Shore SE, Sumner CJ, Bledsoe SC, Lu J (2003) Effects of contralateral sound stimulation on unit responses of ventral cochlear nucleus neurons. Experimental Brain Research 221, 427-435 [Abstract]
Sumner CJ, Lopez-Poveda EA, O'Mard LP, Meddis R (2003) Adaptation in a revised inner-hair cell model. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 113, 893-901 [Abstract]
Sumner CJ, Lopez-Poveda EA, O'Mard LP, Meddis R (2003) A non-linear filterbank model of the guinea-pig cochlear. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 113, 3264-3274 [Abstract]
Meddis R, Delahaye R, O'Mard LP, Sumner CJ, Fantini DA, Winter IM, Pressnitzer D (2002) A model of signal processing in the cochlear nucleus: comodulation masking release. Acustica 88, 397-398
Sumner CJ, Lopez-Poveda EA, O'Mard LP, Meddis R (2002) A Revised model of the Inner Haircell and Auditory Nerve Complex. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 111, 2178-2188 [Abstract]
Sumner CJ, Gillies DF (1997) Lateral Inhibitory Networks for Auditory Modelling. Eurospeech