State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2010 Jul;31(7):1106-16. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20922.
The present study examines the neural substrates for the perception of speech rhythm and intonation. Subjects listened passively to synthesized speech stimuli that contained no semantic and phonological information, in three conditions: (1) continuous speech stimuli with fixed syllable duration and fundamental frequency in the standard condition, (2) stimuli with varying vocalic durations of syllables in the speech rhythm condition, and (3) stimuli with varying fundamental frequency in the intonation condition. Compared to the standard condition, speech rhythm activated the right middle superior temporal gyrus (mSTG), whereas intonation activated the bilateral superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (STG/STS) and the right posterior STS. Conjunction analysis further revealed that rhythm and intonation activated a common area in the right mSTG but compared to speech rhythm, intonation elicited additional activations in the right anterior STS. Findings from the current study reveal that the right mSTG plays an important role in prosodic processing. Implications of our findings are discussed with respect to neurocognitive theories of auditory processing.
本研究考察了感知言语节奏和语调的神经基础。在三种条件下，被试被动地听含有无语义和语音信息的合成语音刺激：（1）在标准条件下，音节持续时间和基频固定的连续语音刺激；（2）在语音节奏条件下，音节元音持续时间变化的刺激；（3）在语调条件下，基频变化的刺激。与标准条件相比，语音节奏激活了右侧中颞上回（mSTG），而语调激活了双侧颞上回和沟（STG/STS）以及右侧后 STS。联合分析进一步表明，节奏和语调在右侧 mSTG 中激活了一个共同区域，但与语音节奏相比，语调在右侧前 STS 中引起了额外的激活。本研究的结果表明，右侧 mSTG 在韵律处理中起着重要作用。我们的研究结果对听觉处理的神经认知理论进行了讨论。
