Abstract:There is still a controversial debate regarding, where in the processing hierarchy of the central nervous system (CNS) selective attention takes effect. The auditory system can influence cochlear processes via direct and mediated (by the inferior colliculus) projections from the auditory cortex to the superior olivary complex (SOC). Studies illustrating attentional modulations of cochlear responses have so far been limited to sound evoked responses. The aim of the present study was to investigate intermodal (a… Show more
“…Furthermore, this subcortical activity can even be modulated by attention ( 19, 20, 23 ). Interestingly, top-down attentional modulations of auditory activity can already be detected at the hair cells in the inner ear measured as otoacoustic activity (faint sounds emitted by the outer hair cells; see 24 ). Other studies have shown that even subcortical nuclei on the auditory pathway are behaviorally relevant for speech recognition (medial geniculate bodies; 25 ).…”
The most prominent acoustic features in speech are intensity modulations, represented by the amplitude envelope of speech. Synchronization of neural activity with these modulations is vital for speech comprehension. As the acoustic modulation of speech is related to the production of syllables, investigations of neural speech tracking rarely distinguish between lower-level acoustic (envelope modulation) and higher-level linguistic (syllable rate) information. Here we manipulated speech intelligibility using noise-vocoded speech and investigated the spectral dynamics of neural speech processing, across two studies at cortical and subcortical levels of the auditory hierarchy, using magnetoencephalography. Overall, cortical regions mostly track the syllable rate, whereas subcortical regions track the acoustic envelope. Furthermore, with less intelligible speech, tracking of the modulation rate becomes more dominant. Our study highlights the importance of distinguishing between envelope modulation and syllable rate and provides novel possibilities to better understand differences between auditory processing and speech/language processing disorders.
“…Furthermore, this subcortical activity can even be modulated by attention ( 19, 20, 23 ). Interestingly, top-down attentional modulations of auditory activity can already be detected at the hair cells in the inner ear measured as otoacoustic activity (faint sounds emitted by the outer hair cells; see 24 ). Other studies have shown that even subcortical nuclei on the auditory pathway are behaviorally relevant for speech recognition (medial geniculate bodies; 25 ).…”
The most prominent acoustic features in speech are intensity modulations, represented by the amplitude envelope of speech. Synchronization of neural activity with these modulations is vital for speech comprehension. As the acoustic modulation of speech is related to the production of syllables, investigations of neural speech tracking rarely distinguish between lower-level acoustic (envelope modulation) and higher-level linguistic (syllable rate) information. Here we manipulated speech intelligibility using noise-vocoded speech and investigated the spectral dynamics of neural speech processing, across two studies at cortical and subcortical levels of the auditory hierarchy, using magnetoencephalography. Overall, cortical regions mostly track the syllable rate, whereas subcortical regions track the acoustic envelope. Furthermore, with less intelligible speech, tracking of the modulation rate becomes more dominant. Our study highlights the importance of distinguishing between envelope modulation and syllable rate and provides novel possibilities to better understand differences between auditory processing and speech/language processing disorders.
The most prominent acoustic features in speech are intensity modulations, represented by the amplitude envelope of speech. Synchronization of neural activity with these modulations supports speech comprehension. As the acoustic modulation of speech is related to the production of syllables, investigations of neural speech tracking commonly do not distinguish between lower‐level acoustic (envelope modulation) and higher‐level linguistic (syllable rate) information. Here we manipulated speech intelligibility using noise‐vocoded speech and investigated the spectral dynamics of neural speech processing, across two studies at cortical and subcortical levels of the auditory hierarchy, using magnetoencephalography. Overall, cortical regions mostly track the syllable rate, whereas subcortical regions track the acoustic envelope. Furthermore, with less intelligible speech, tracking of the modulation rate becomes more dominant. Our study highlights the importance of distinguishing between envelope modulation and syllable rate and provides novel possibilities to better understand differences between auditory processing and speech/language processing disorders.
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