Attentional modulation and domain-specificity underlying the neural organization of auditory categorical perception
Attentional modulation and domain-specificity underlying the neural organization of auditory categorical perception
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/ejn.13526
复制
发表时间：
2017-03-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Walker, Breya S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bidelman, Gavin M.;Walker, Breya S.
尽管刺激声学等距变化，但当听众对语音的感知突然改变身份时，分类感知（CP）在试听中非常明显。虽然 CP 是语音感知的固有属性，但它如何（是否）以其他听觉方式（例如音乐）表达还不太清楚。此外，之前的神经影像学研究对于大脑明确组织声音是否需要注意力集中的问题一直模棱两可。为了解决这些问题，我们记录了听众在语音和音乐连续体（主动任务）或被动聆听过程中快速对声音进行分类时的神经电大脑反应 [事件相关电位 (ERP)]。在行为上，与以连续模式感知的音乐刺激相比，听众获得了更敏锐的心理测量功能和更快的语音识别能力。行为结果与语音的典型标记和模糊标记（即分类处理）之间更强的 ERP 区分一致，但音乐则不然。只有当听众积极关注听觉信号时，才能观察到 CP 的神经相关性。这些发现得到了大脑与行为关联的证实。神经活动的变化可以预测主动诱发的 ERP（而非被动诱发的 ERP）更成功的 CP（心理斜率）。我们的结果表明，听觉分类受到注意力（主动>被动）的影响，并且对于更熟悉/过度学习的刺激领域（语音>音乐）来说听觉分类更强。与之前检查训练有素的听众（即音乐家）的研究相比，我们推断（i）CP 技能在很大程度上是特定领域的，并且不能推广到听众没有直接经验的刺激；（ii）分类神经处理需要积极参与听觉刺激。
Categorical perception (CP) is highly evident in audition when listeners' perception of speech sounds abruptly shifts identity despite equidistant changes in stimulus acoustics. While CP is an inherent property of speech perception, how (if) it is expressed in other auditory modalities (e.g., music) is less clear. Moreover, prior neuroimaging studies have been equivocal on whether attentional engagement is necessary for the brain to categorically organize sound. To address these questions, we recorded neuroelectric brain responses [event-related potentials (ERPs)] from listeners as they rapidly categorized sounds along a speech and music continuum (active task) or during passive listening. Behaviorally, listeners' achieved sharper psychometric functions and faster identification for speech than musical stimuli, which was perceived in a continuous mode. Behavioral results coincided with stronger ERP differentiation between prototypical and ambiguous tokens (i.e., categorical processing) for speech but not for music. Neural correlates of CP were only observed when listeners actively attended to the auditory signal. These findings were corroborated by brain-behavior associations; changes in neural activity predicted more successful CP (psychometric slopes) for active but not passively evoked ERPs. Our results demonstrate auditory categorization is influenced by attention (active > passive) and is stronger for more familiar/overlearned stimulus domains (speech > music). In contrast to previous studies examining highly trained listeners (i.e., musicians), we infer that (i) CP skills are largely domain-specific and do not generalize to stimuli for which a listener has no immediate experience and (ii) categorical neural processing requires active engagement with the auditory stimulus.