Toronto, Aug 13 - Sounds and images share a similar neural code in the human brain, according to a new study.

Scientists from the University of Montreal (U-M) and Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University explain how the same neural code in the brain allows people to distinguish between different types of sounds, such as speech and music, or different images.

Participants were recruited to undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), a non-invasive form of brain mapping used to determine how the brain recognizes different characteristics in musical instruments, words from conversations or environmental sounds.

Subjects underwent an exhaustive three hours of FMRI exams to provide precise information about how the brain reacts when different sounds are played.

'It turns out that the brain uses the same strategy to encode sounds as the one to encode different images,' explained study co-author Marc Schonwiesner.