Neural Tuning to Low-Level Features of Speech throughout the Perisylvian Cortex
Neural Tuning to Low-Level Features of Speech throughout the Perisylvian Cortex
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.0238-17.2017
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发表时间：
2017-08-16
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Ramsey, Nick F.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Berezutskaya, Julia;Freudenburg, Zachary V.;Ramsey, Nick F.
尽管有大量的研究，我们仍然缺乏对连续语音的听觉处理在人脑中如何展开的详细说明。先前的研究表明，语音的低水平声学特征在人脑中从后上级颞回向前上级颞回传播（Hullett等人，2016）。在这项研究中，我们调查发生了什么事，这些神经表征过去的上级颞回，以及他们如何从事更高层次的语言处理领域，如额下回。我们使用低级别的声音特征来模拟初级听觉皮层之外的神经对语音的反应。两种互补的成像技术用于人类参与者（男性和女性）：皮质电图（ECoG）和功能磁共振成像。两种成像技术都显示了大脑外侧裂周皮层对低水平语音特征的调节。通过皮层脑电图，我们发现了言语声音的时间特征沿着大脑中语言处理的腹侧通路向额下回传播的证据。从后上级颞叶皮层向额下回传播的语音的时间特征越来越粗糙，与语音起始时间、共振峰转换持续时间、音素、音节和词边界等语言特征相关。目前的研究结果提供了一个全面的自下而上的帐户在人类大脑的语音理解的基础。
Despite a large body of research, we continue to lack a detailed account of how auditory processing of continuous speech unfolds in the human brain. Previous research showed the propagation of low-level acoustic features of speech from posterior superior temporal gyrus toward anterior superior temporal gyrus in the human brain (Hullett et al., 2016). In this study, we investigate what happens to these neural representations past the superior temporal gyrus and how they engage higher-level language processing areas such as inferior frontal gyrus. We used low-level sound features to model neural responses to speech outside of the primary auditory cortex. Two complementary imaging techniques were used with human participants (both males and females): electrocorticography (ECoG) and fMRI. Both imaging techniques showed tuning of the perisylvian cortex to low-level speech features. With ECoG, we found evidence of propagation of the temporal features of speech sounds along the ventral pathway of language processing in the brain toward inferior frontal gyrus. Increasingly coarse temporal features of speech spreading from posterior superior temporal cortex toward inferior frontal gyrus were associated with linguistic features such as voice onset time, duration of the formant transitions, and phoneme, syllable, and word boundaries. The present findings provide the groundwork for a comprehensive bottom-up account of speech comprehension in the human brain.