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Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language
Published on: October 13, 2018
Abstract coding of audiovisual speech: beyond sensory representation
Uri Hasson1, Jeremy I Skipper, Howard C Nusbaum
1Department of Neurology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. uhasson@uchicago.edu
Neuron
|December 21, 2007
Summary
This study used fMRI to find brain areas representing speech percepts beyond sensory input. Two left-hemisphere regions showed neural facilitation, indicating abstract sublexical speech coding.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Perception
- Speech Processing
Background:
- The brain's ability to represent speech abstractly, independent of sensory input, is not fully understood.
- Investigating neural correlates of speech perception is crucial for understanding auditory processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify brain regions with neural activity corresponding to the listener's speech percept, irrespective of sensory features.
- To determine if sublexical speech representations are abstract.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to measure brain activity.
- Participants observed audiovisual stimuli with varying degrees of auditory, visual, and perceptual overlap with a target stimulus.
- Neural activity was compared based on preceding stimuli characteristics.
Main Results:
- Two left-hemisphere regions, pars opercularis and planum polare, exhibited reduced neural activity when the target stimulus followed a perceptually overlapping stimulus.
- This neural facilitation pattern was distinct from responses following stimuli with only auditory or visual overlap.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that the pars opercularis and planum polare encode sublexical speech at an abstract level.
- These brain areas represent the listener's speech percept, transcending specific sensory properties of the input.
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