Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8050, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8050, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8057, Switzerland; Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, 8057, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Prog Neurobiol. 2021 May;200:101982. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2020.101982. Epub 2020 Dec 15.
A subregion of the auditory cortex (AC) was proposed to selectively process voices. This selectivity of the temporal voice area (TVA) and its role in processing non-voice sounds however have remained elusive. For a better functional description of the TVA, we investigated its neural responses both to voice and non-voice sounds, and critically also to textural sound patterns (TSPs) that share basic features with natural sounds but that are perceptually very distant from voices. Listening to these TSPs, first, elicited activity in large subregions of the TVA, which was mainly driven by perpetual ratings of TSPs along a voice similarity scale. This similar TVA activity in response to TSPs might partially explain activation patterns typically observed during voice processing. Second, we reconstructed the TVA activity that is usually observed in voice processing with a linear combination of activation patterns from TSPs. An analysis of the reconstruction model weights demonstrated that the TVA similarly processes both natural voice and non-voice sounds as well as TSPs along their acoustic and perceptual features. The predominant factor in reconstructing the TVA pattern by TSPs were the perceptual voice similarity ratings. Third, a multi-voxel pattern analysis confirms that the TSPs contain sufficient sound information to explain TVA activity for voice processing. Altogether, rather than being restricted to higher-order voice processing only, the human "voice area" uses mechanisms to evaluate the perceptual and acoustic quality of non-voice sounds, and responds to the latter with a "voice-like" processing pattern when detecting some rudimentary perceptual similarity with voices.
听觉皮层（AC）的一个亚区被提出专门处理声音。然而，时间性语音区（TVA）的这种选择性及其在处理非语音声音中的作用仍然难以捉摸。为了更好地描述 TVA 的功能，我们研究了它对语音和非语音声音的神经反应，并且批判性地也研究了纹理声音模式（TSP）的神经反应，这些模式与自然声音具有基本特征，但在感知上与声音非常遥远。首先，听到这些 TSP 会引发 TVA 的大部分区域的活动，这主要是由 TSP 沿着声音相似性量表的持续评分驱动的。这种对 TSP 的类似 TVA 活动可能部分解释了在语音处理过程中通常观察到的激活模式。其次，我们使用 TSP 的激活模式的线性组合来重建通常在语音处理中观察到的 TVA 活动。对重建模型权重的分析表明，TVA 以类似的方式处理自然语音和非语音声音以及 TSP，沿着它们的声学和感知特征。通过 TSP 重建 TVA 模式的主要因素是感知声音相似性评分。第三，多体素模式分析证实 TSP 包含足够的声音信息，可以解释用于语音处理的 TVA 活动。总的来说，人类的“语音区”不仅限于高级语音处理，它还利用机制来评估非语音声音的感知和声学质量，并在检测到与声音有一些基本感知相似性时，以“语音样”的处理模式对后者做出反应。
