Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 17, 2026
Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning
Published on: October 22, 2015
The peri-Sylvian cortical network underlying single word repetition revealed by electrocortical stimulation and
Matthew K Leonard1, Ruofan Cai1, Miranda C Babiak1
1Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, United States; Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, United States.
Abstract:
Verbal repetition requires the coordination of auditory, memory, linguistic, and motor systems. To date, the basic dynamics of neural information processing in this deceptively simple behavior are largely unknown. Here, we examined the neural processes underlying verbal repetition using focal interruption (electrocortical stimulation) in 58 patients undergoing awake craniotomies, and neurophysiological recordings (electrocorticography) in 8 patients while they performed a single word repetition task. Electrocortical stimulation revealed that sub-components of the left peri-Sylvian network involved in single word repetition could be differentially interrupted, producing transient perceptual deficits, paraphasic errors, or speech arrest. Electrocorticography revealed the detailed spatio-temporal dynamics of cortical activation, involving a highly-ordered, but overlapping temporal progression of cortical high gamma (75-150Hz) activity throughout the peri-Sylvian cortex. We observed functionally distinct serial and parallel cortical processing corresponding to successive stages of general auditory processing (posterior superior temporal gyrus), speech-specific auditory processing (middle and posterior superior temporal gyrus), working memory (inferior frontal cortex), and motor articulation (sensorimotor cortex). Together, these methods reveal the dynamics of coordinated activity across peri-Sylvian cortex during verbal repetition.
