Following rapid methodological advances, ultra-high field (UHF) functional and anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been repeatedly and successfully used for the investigation of the human auditory system in recent years. Here, we review this work and argue that UHF MRI is uniquely suited to shed light on how sounds are represented throughout the network of auditory brain regions. That is, the provided gain in spatial resolution at UHF can be used to study the functional role of the small subcortical auditory processing stages and details of cortical processing. Further, by combining high spatial resolution with the versatility of MRI contrasts, UHF MRI has the potential to localize the primary auditory cortex in individual hemispheres. This is a prerequisite to study how sound representation in higher-level auditory cortex evolves from that in early (primary) auditory cortex. Finally, the access to independent signals across auditory cortical depths, as afforded by UHF, may reveal the computations that underlie the emergence of an abstract, categorical sound representation based on low-level acoustic feature processing. Efforts on these research topics are underway. Here we discuss promises as well as challenges that come with studying these research questions using UHF MRI, and provide a future outlook.

随着方法论的快速发展，超高场（UHF）功能和解剖磁共振成像（MRI）近年来已被反复成功地用于人类听觉系统的研究。在这里，我们回顾了这项工作，并认为 UHF MRI 特别适合揭示声音在整个听觉大脑区域网络中的表示方式。也就是说，所提供的 UHF 空间分辨率增益可用于研究小型皮层下听觉处理阶段的功能作用和皮层处理的细节。此外，通过将高空间分辨率与 MRI 对比的多功能性相结合，UHF MRI 有可能定位单个半球的初级听觉皮层。这是研究高级听觉皮层中的声音表征如何从早期（初级）听觉皮层中演化而来的先决条件。最后，通过 UHF 提供的跨听觉皮层深度的独立信号的访问可能会揭示基于低级声学特征处理的抽象、分类声音表示的出现背后的计算。这些研究课题的努力正在进行中。在这里，我们讨论使用 UHF MRI 研究这些研究问题的前景和挑战，并提供未来展望。