Collaborative Research: Using Somatosensory Speech And Non-Speech Categories To Test The Brain's General Principles Of Perceptual Learning

人类大脑对新类型的感官信息表现出惊人的适应能力。这种适应性的一个例子是失明的人，他们学会了通过触觉来感知口语，把一只手放在说话的人的脸上和喉咙上。这个例子告诉我们，躯体感觉系统可以进行语音感知，这通常被认为是在听觉领域。乔治敦大学的马克西米利安博士和林恩E.乔治华盛顿大学的伯恩斯坦沿着他们的多学科团队将使用先进的功能性磁共振脑成像（fMRI）和脑电图（EEG）来研究躯体感觉系统学习人工类别和语音类别的神经机制。在他们的研究中，他们正在使用一种新型的传感器向接受人工或语音类别训练的参与者的前臂提供高维刺激。该团队正在研究人工类别的体感模式的感知学习是否遵循已知的听觉和视觉类别学习的原则。对于他们的第二个目标，研究人员正在训练参与者识别转化为振动模式的口语。言语刺激旨在解决有关跨感官学习和听觉和视觉言语类别联系的问题。在训练之前和之后，fMRI和EEG测量被应用于确定新学习的类别在大脑中的位置和时间。该项目推动了关于大脑可塑性的知识前沿，以学习新的躯体感觉类别，包括首次展示通过触觉进行言语学习的神经基础。了解大脑中感觉处理的一般原理，特别是不同感觉形式的潜在神经机制的共性和差异，对于诸如用于听力和/或视力障碍的神经假体的设计的实际应用是非常感兴趣的。例如，听觉或视觉感觉系统受损的患者可能会受益于用振动触觉刺激代替通过受损感觉系统不再可用的信息的设备。振动触觉刺激可以与视觉或听觉刺激相结合，以改善嘈杂环境中的言语感知，例如飞机驾驶舱。该项目的fMRI和EEG数据沿着参与者培训期间保存的详细记录将提供给研究界。训练前后获得的大脑测量结果对于测试大脑可塑性和学习的新假设具有成本效益。研究成果将通过出版物和会议介绍广泛传播。该研究项目还将广泛用于培养下一代研究生和本科生科学家，特别关注代表性不足的少数群体。

The human brain displays astonishing adaptation to novel types of sensory information. An example of such adaptation is deaf-blind individuals who learned to perceive spoken language through their sense of touch, by placing a hand on the face and throat of someone producing speech. This example tells us that the somatosensory system can carry out speech perception, which is normally thought to be in the domain of hearing. Drs. Maximilian Riesenhuber of Georgetown University and Lynne E. Bernstein of George Washington University along with their multidisciplinary team will use advanced functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the learning of artificial categories and speech categories by the somatosensory system. In their research they are using a novel transducer to present high-dimensional stimuli to the forearm of participants who are trained on artificial or speech categories. The team is addressing whether perceptual learning of artificial categories of somatosensory patterns follows principles known to govern auditory and visual category learning. For their second aim, the researchers are training participants to recognize spoken words that are transformed into patterns of vibration. The speech stimuli are designed to address questions about cross-sensory learning and the linking of speech categories across hearing and vision. Before and following training, fMRI and EEG measures are being applied to determine where and when in the brain newly learned categories are represented. This project is pushing the frontiers of knowledge about the brain's plasticity for learning novel somatosensory categories, including showing for the first time the neural bases for speech learning through the sense of touch.Understanding the general principles of sensory processing in the brain, and in particular the commonalities and differences in the underlying neural mechanisms across sensory modalities, is of great interest for practical applications such as the design of neuroprostheses for hearing and/or vision disorders. For example, patients who have auditory or visual sensory system damage may benefit from devices that substitute vibrotactile stimuli for information no longer available through their damaged sensory systems. Vibrotactile stimuli can be combined with visual or auditory stimuli to improve speech perception in noisy situations such as the cockpit of a plane. The fMRI and EEG data from this project along with detailed records kept during training of participants will be made available to the research community. The brain measures obtained before and after training will be valuable for cost-effective testing of new hypotheses about brain plasticity and learning. Research results will be broadly disseminated through publications and conference presentations. The research project will also be leveraged extensively to train the next generation of scientists, at the graduate and undergraduate level, with a particular focus on underrepresented minorities.