Neurobiology of Auditory Language Perception

描述(申请人提供)：对语言的听觉理解是人类交流的基础，在神经性疾病中经常因为不完全理解的原因而被破坏。该提案的首要目标是了解听觉语言理解的神经基础，从而为有效干预打开大门。我们使用基于病变/卒中的互补MRI方法和功能MRI方法来解决三个特定的目标。目的1：了解言语感知的神经基础。运动系统可能在言语感知中发挥重要作用的想法已经得到了广泛的欢迎。相反，我们认为，言语感知是在双侧上颞叶组织的，额叶/运动调制最小。在这一目标下提出的实验使用理解和音节辨别任务以及信号检测方法来检验这些相互竞争的想法。目的2：了解听觉外影响在言语知觉/理解中的作用。言语感知受语境信息的影响。在这里，我们考察了两种线索的影响，视觉语音和词级信息。我们假设，颞叶回路主要负责这两个影响言语知觉的来源。我们提出的研究将验证这一假设。目的3：了解句子水平加工的神经基础。言语感知和单词理解是理解的关键，但有效的交流还依赖于更高层次的过程，如涉及句子理解的过程。我们提出的研究旨在验证我们的假设，即前颞区对于整合词汇和句法信息以获得句子意义特别重要。在方法论上，这个项目是由一种观点驱动的，即需要多种方法来得出神经过程的完整图景。为了加快病变工作的步伐，这可能是非常缓慢的，我们开发了一个多站点失语症研究联盟(MARC)，它将使我们能够以前所未有的速度收集数据。这将通过快速积累定量损伤行为相关性分析所需的大样本来消除快速进展的关键障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Auditory comprehension of language is fundamental to human communication and is often disrupted in neurological disorders for reasons that are incompletely understood. The overarching goal of the proposal is to understand the neural basis of auditory language comprehension and therefore open the door to effective interventions. We use complementary lesion/stroke-based and functional MRI methods to address three specific aims. Aim 1: Understand the neural basis of speech perception. The idea that the motor system may play a prominent role in speech perception has gained much popularity. We have argued instead that speech perception is bilaterally organized in the superior temporal lobes with minimal frontal/motor modulation. Experiments proposed under this aim test these competing ideas using both comprehension and syllable discrimination tasks and signal detection methods. Aim 2: Understand the role of extra-auditory influences on speech perception/comprehension. Speech perception is influenced by contextual information. Here we examine the influence of two cues, visual speech and word-level information. We hypothesize that temporal lobe circuits are primarily responsible for both of these sources of influence on speech perception. Our proposed studies will test this hypothesis. Aim 3: Understand the neural basis of sentence-level processing. Speech perception and word comprehension are critical for comprehension, but effective communication relies additionally on higher-order processes such as those involved in sentence comprehension. We propose studies aimed at testing our hypothesis that anterior temporal regions are particularly important for integrating lexical and syntactic information to derive sentence meaning. Methodologically, this program is driven by a commitment to the view that multiple methods are required for deriving a complete picture of a neural process. To speed the pace of lesion work, which can be laboriously slow, we have developed a Multisite Aphasia Research Consortium (MARC) that will enable us to collect data at an unprecedented pace. This will remove a critical barrier to rapid progress by quickly accruing the large samples needed for quantitative lesion-behavior correlation analyses.