When we are engaged in a task, our brain’s auditory system changes how it works. One of the main auditory centers of the brain, the auditory cortex, is filled with neural activity that is not sound-driven—rather, this activity times the task, each neuron ticking at a different moment during task performance.

Researchers at Hebrew University have discovered how this happens. The study published in Science Advances, led by Prof. Israel Nelken from the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) and the Institute of Life Sciences, is based on the Ph.D. research of Ana Polterovich, with contributions from Alex Kazakov, Maciej M. Jankowski, and Johannes Niediek.

They found that when we are engaged in the task, neurons in the brain’s auditory cortex show large bursts of activity that aren’t caused directly by sounds. Instead, these “ticks” are tied to specific moments in a task, suggesting that the auditory cortex is deeply in sync with behavior.