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Increased Right Frontal Brain Activity During the Mandarin Hearing-in-Noise Test
Fengxiang Song1, Yi Zhan1, James C Ford2,3
1Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|January 4, 2021
Summary
Comprehending Mandarin speech in noise activates the right frontal cortex, particularly in areas related to tone processing and working memory. This study highlights unique brain activation patterns in tonal languages during challenging listening conditions.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Linguistics
Background:
- Previous research indicates increased frontal brain activation during speech comprehension in noisy environments.
- However, studies using tonal languages like Mandarin are scarce, leaving the neural basis of processing tonal speech in noise unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate brain activation patterns during a challenging speech-in-noise task using Mandarin Hearing-in-Noise Test (MHINT) sentences.
- To compare brain activity between clear and noisy sentence conditions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Main Methods:
- Thirty native Mandarin speakers with normal hearing underwent fMRI scans.
- Subjects listened to clear (SNR +3 dB) and noisy (SNR -5 dB) MHINT sentences.
- Participants indicated via button press if a target word was present, and brain activation was compared between conditions and to rest.
Main Results:
- Noisy sentence comprehension led to increased activity in the right superior and middle frontal gyri (BAs 46, 10), associated with tone processing and working memory.
- Reduced activity was observed in auditory, language, memory, and somatosensory areas, including temporal gyri, amygdala-hippocampus, and putamen.
Conclusions:
- Mandarin speech comprehension in noise elicits significant right-sided frontal activation, potentially reflecting enhanced lexical tone perception.
- These findings differ from studies using non-tonal languages, suggesting unique neural mechanisms for tonal languages.
- The fMRI protocol used offers an efficient method for assessing brain activation in speech-in-noise tasks.
