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The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Overath, T; McDermott, JH; Zarate, JM; Poeppel, D
Published in: Nature neuroscience
June 2015

Speech contains temporal structure that the brain must analyze to enable linguistic processing. To investigate the neural basis of this analysis, we used sound quilts, stimuli constructed by shuffling segments of a natural sound, approximately preserving its properties on short timescales while disrupting them on longer scales. We generated quilts from foreign speech to eliminate language cues and manipulated the extent of natural acoustic structure by varying the segment length. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we identified bilateral regions of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) whose responses varied with segment length. This effect was absent in primary auditory cortex and did not occur for quilts made from other natural sounds or acoustically matched synthetic sounds, suggesting tuning to speech-specific spectrotemporal structure. When examined parametrically, the STS response increased with segment length up to ∼500 ms. Our results identify a locus of speech analysis in human auditory cortex that is distinct from lexical, semantic or syntactic processes.

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Published In

Nature neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1546-1726

ISSN

1097-6256

Publication Date

June 2015

Volume

18

Issue

6

Start / End Page

903 / 911

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Speech Perception
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Oxygen
  • Noise
  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Functional Laterality
 

Citation

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Overath, T., McDermott, J. H., Zarate, J. M., & Poeppel, D. (2015). The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts. Nature Neuroscience, 18(6), 903–911. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4021
Overath, Tobias, Josh H. McDermott, Jean Mary Zarate, and David Poeppel. “The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts.Nature Neuroscience 18, no. 6 (June 2015): 903–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4021.
Overath T, McDermott JH, Zarate JM, Poeppel D. The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts. Nature neuroscience. 2015 Jun;18(6):903–11.
Overath, Tobias, et al. “The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts.Nature Neuroscience, vol. 18, no. 6, June 2015, pp. 903–11. Epmc, doi:10.1038/nn.4021.
Overath T, McDermott JH, Zarate JM, Poeppel D. The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts. Nature neuroscience. 2015 Jun;18(6):903–911.

Published In

Nature neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1546-1726

ISSN

1097-6256

Publication Date

June 2015

Volume

18

Issue

6

Start / End Page

903 / 911

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Speech Perception
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Oxygen
  • Noise
  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Functional Laterality