Hohmann Anja, Loui Psyche, Li Charles H, Schlaug Gottfried
Department of Neurology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, United States.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Jan 30;12:9. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00009. eCollection 2018.
Perceiving and producing vocal sounds are important functions of the auditory-motor system and are fundamental to communication. Prior studies have identified a network of brain regions involved in pitch production, specifically pitch matching. Here we reverse engineer the function of the auditory perception-production network by targeting specific cortical regions (e.g., right and left posterior superior temporal (pSTG) and posterior inferior frontal gyri (pIFG)) with cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)-commonly found to decrease excitability in the underlying cortical region-allowing us to causally test the role of particular nodes in this network. Performance on a pitch-matching task was determined before and after 20 min of cathodal stimulation. Acoustic analyses of pitch productions showed impaired accuracy after cathodal stimulation to the left pIFG and the right pSTG in comparison to sham stimulation. Both regions share particular roles in the feedback and feedforward motor control of pitched vocal production with a differential hemispheric dominance.
感知和发出声音是听觉运动系统的重要功能，也是交流的基础。先前的研究已经确定了一个参与音高产生（特别是音高匹配）的脑区网络。在这里，我们通过使用阴极经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）——通常会降低潜在皮质区域的兴奋性——靶向特定皮质区域（例如左右后颞上回（pSTG）和额下回后部（pIFG））来逆向设计听觉感知-产生网络的功能，从而使我们能够因果性地测试该网络中特定节点的作用。在阴极刺激20分钟前后测定音高匹配任务的表现。与假刺激相比，对左pIFG和右pSTG进行阴极刺激后，音高产生的声学分析显示准确性受损。这两个区域在有不同半球优势的有音高的发声产生的反馈和前馈运动控制中都发挥着特殊作用。
