Human temporal lobe activation by speech and nonspeech sounds.

Full Abstract

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 information

Author/s: Binder, J R (JR); Frost, J A (JA); Hammeke, T A (TA); Bellgowan, P S (PS); Springer, J A (JA); Kaufman, J N (JN); Possing, E T (ET);

Affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA. jbinder(-atsign-)mcw.edu

Grants: P01 MH51358 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; R01 NS33576 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS) ; R01 NS35929 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) (Cereb Cortex), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2000-May; vol 10 (issue 5) : pp 512-28

Dates: Created 2000/09/06; Completed 2000/09/06; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 10847601, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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