Human temporal lobe activation by speech and nonspeech sounds. Cereb Cortex 2000 May;10(5):512-28
Date
06/10/2000Pubmed ID
10847601DOI
10.1093/cercor/10.5.512Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0034038806 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 1119 CitationsAbstract
Functional organization of the lateral temporal cortex in humans is not well understood. We recorded blood oxygenation signals from the temporal lobes of normal volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging during stimulation with unstructured noise, frequency-modulated (FM) tones, reversed speech, pseudowords and words. For all conditions, subjects performed a material-nonspecific detection response when a train of stimuli began or ceased. Dorsal areas surrounding Heschl's gyrus bilaterally, particularly the planum temporale and dorsolateral superior temporal gyrus, were more strongly activated by FM tones than by noise, suggesting a role in processing simple temporally encoded auditory information. Distinct from these dorsolateral areas, regions centered in the superior temporal sulcus bilaterally were more activated by speech stimuli than by FM tones. Identical results were obtained in this region using words, pseudowords and reversed speech, suggesting that the speech-tones activation difference is due to acoustic rather than linguistic factors. In contrast, previous comparisons between word and nonword speech sounds showed left-lateralized activation differences in more ventral temporal and temporoparietal regions that are likely involved in processing lexical-semantic or syntactic information associated with words. The results indicate functional subdivision of the human lateral temporal cortex and provide a preliminary framework for understanding the cortical processing of speech sounds.
Author List
Binder JR, Frost JA, Hammeke TA, Bellgowan PS, Springer JA, Kaufman JN, Possing ETAuthor
Jeffrey R. Binder MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Acoustic StimulationAdult
Auditory Perceptual Disorders
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Noise
Speech
Speech Perception
Temporal Lobe
