Levels of representation in the electrophysiology of speech perception

Abstract

Mapping from acoustic signals to lexical representations is a complex process mediated by a number of different levels of representation. This paper reviews properties of the phonetic and phonological levels, and hypotheses about how category structure is represented at each of these levels, and evaluates these hypotheses in light of relevant electrophysiological studies of phonetics and phonology. The paper examines evidence for two alternative views of how infant phonetic representations develop into adult representations, a structure‐changing view and a structure‐adding view, and suggests that each may be better suited to different kinds of phonetic categories. Electrophysiological results are beginning to provide information about phonological representations, but less is known about how the more abstract representations at this level could be coded in the brain.

Toward a neural theory of language: Old issues and new perspectives

“…As the authors noted, this proposal is similar to the Featurally Underspecified Lexicon (FUL) model of speech recognition (Lahiri & Reetz, 2002. In fact, a growing body of neurophysiological research (and, more rarely, neuroimaging studies) has preliminary demonstrated the possibility of probing the neural representation of distinctive features, although from different perspectives (Aaltonen et al, 2008;Cornell, Lahiri, & Eulitz, 2011;Dehaene-Lambertz, 1997;Eulitz, 2007;Friedrich, Lahiri, & Eulitz, 2008;Idsardi, 2007;Kazanina, Phillips, & Idsardi, 2006;Lipski, Lahiri, & Eulitz, 2007;Näätänen et al, 1997;Obleser, Lahiri, & Eulitz, 2004;Philips, 2001;Phillips et al, 2000;Sörös et al, 2006; see also the studies reviewed in Näätänen, Kujala, & Winkler, 2011;Näätänen, Paavilainen, Rinne, & Alho, 2007;Winkler, 2007). In particular, the findings of these studies provisionally hint (a) that representations of sound categories are abstract, (b) that not all phonological features are stored in the mental lexicon, and (c) that a top-down influence of the language-specific phonological system exists for the fine structure of phonological representations.…”

MMN to natural Arabic CV syllables: 1-normative data

“…Perception of speech signal depends upon many acoustic parameters working together including voicing, VOT, formant transitions and formant frequencies (Greenberg, 1996;Phillips, 2001). Synthetic speech signals differing in one dimension can be used to study pathophysiology of auditory, cognitive and psychological deficits.…”

Auditory representations and phonological illusions: A linguist’s perspective on the neuropsychological bases of speech perception

“…The ability for the listener to analyze the acoustic signal into discrete categories in auditory representationsdan ability that is fundamental for featural distinction in perceptiondis demonstrated by several studies that suggest that complex events such as stream segregationdextracting the abstract sound patterns and invariant sound relationshipsdand categorical speech perception may take place in the auditory cortex (Dehaene-Lambertz, 1997;Näätänen, 2001;Paavilainen, Jaramillo, Näätänen, & Winkler, 1999Phillips, 2001;Phillips et al, 2000;Shestakova et al, 2002;Sussman, Fruchter, Hilbert, & Sirosh, 1999, Sussman, Winkler, Huotilainen, Ritter, & Näätänen, 2002Tervaniemi, Saarinen, Paavilainen, Danilova, & Näätänen, 1994). The same thing is shown by quantal aspects of auditory responses to sound, such as responses to acoustic discontinuities and to closely spaced spectral prominences (Chistovich & Lublinskaya, 1979;Delgutte & Kiang, 1984;Stevens, 2002).…”

“…Therefore as Werker has argued, 'developmental change does not involve loss' (Phillips, 2001;Werker, 1994;Werker & Logan, 1985). Earlier in Section 4, following Werker and Logan (1985), I introduced the distinction between phonemic and phonetic perception.…”