NEURAL BASIS FOR THE PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF PROSODY

描述（由申请人提供）：韵律，即语言的旋律和语调，是人类交流中极其重要但通常被低估的组成部分。人类社会互动的一个重要组成部分取决于韵律。本项目的目的是探索人类大脑映射的最新方法和概念在韵律感知和产生研究中的应用。这项研究的最初目标是确定韵律的感知和产生在多大程度上依赖于共享的神经系统。这将通过fMRI研究在感知和产生不同韵律语调的无意义短语时额下回（IFG）重叠区域来确定。第二个目标是确定感知和生产共享回路中的个体差异。在这里，我们的问题是：为什么有些人比其他人更善于捕捉语音中的微妙语调？这样的人是否更能理解他人的情绪？他们是否更擅长把别人的韵律输入模仿到自己的动作表征上？为了探索这些问题，受试者将完成韵律产生、感知和/或移情方面的行为测量。这些测量的分数将与IFG区域的大脑活动相关联，该区域先前被确定为该个体在韵律感知和产生方面都很活跃。阐明韵律的神经基础将对非语言交际的神经生物学，进而对社会交际的神经生物学做出重要贡献。此外，本研究将提高对脑损伤导致的沟通缺陷的理解，以及对社会隔离神经和精神疾病（如中风、创伤性颅脑损伤、自闭症）的核心缺陷的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Prosody, the melody and intonation of speech, is an extremely important and usually undervalued component of human communication. A significant component of human social interactions depends on prosody. The aim of the present project is to explore the application of recent approaches and concepts in human brain mapping to the study of perception and production of prosody. The initial goal of the research is to determine the degree to which perception and production of prosody rely on shared neural systems. This will be determined by an fMRI study of regions of overlap in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during the perception and production of a meaningless phrase in different prosodic intonations. A second goal is to determine individual differences in this shared circuitry for perception and production. Here, we ask: Why are some people better than others at picking up subtle intonations in speech? Are such people more empathetic to the emotions of other people? Are they better at simulating another's prosodic input onto their own motor representations? To explore these questions, subjects will complete behavioral measures in prosody production, perception, and/or empathy. Scores on these measures will be correlated with brain activity in the region of the IFG previously identified as active in that individual for both prosody perception and production. Elucidating the neural basis of prosody will make an important contribution to the neurobiology of non-verbal communication, and by extension, of social communication. Furthermore, this research will improve the understanding of the communication deficits which result from brain injury, as well as the understanding of core deficits of socially isolating neurological and psychiatric disorders (such as stroke, traumatic head injury, autism). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: One of the primary mechanisms of communication and social interaction is the exchange of prosodic information. Understanding the neural basis of prosody will make an important contribution to elucidating the neurobiology of non-verbal communication, and by extension, of social communication. Also, this is important for better understanding core deficits of socially isolating psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as autism and traumatic head injury.