Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Cortical Activities Associated with Articulation of Speech Perception

Recently, brain computer interface (BCI) technologies that control external devices with human brain signals have been developed. However, most of the BCI systems, such as P300-speller, can only discriminate among options that have been given in advance. Therefore, the ability to decode the state of a person's perception and recognition, as well as that person's fundamental intention and emotions, from cortical activity is needed to develop a more general-use BCI system. In this study, two experiments were conducted. First, articulations were measured for Japanese monosyllabic utterances masked by several levels of noise. Second, auditory brain magnetic fields evoked by the monosyllable stimuli used in the first experiment were recorded, and neuronal current sources were localized in regions associated with speech perception and recognition - the auditory cortex (BA41), the Wernicke's area (posterior part of BA22), Broca's area (BA22), motor (BA4), and premotor (BA6) areas. Although the source intensity did not systematically change with SNR, the peak latency changed along SNR in the posterior superior temporal gyrus in the right hemisphere. The results suggest that the information associated with articulation is processed in this area.