Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Charterhouse Square, London EC1M 6BQ, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Dec 20;376(1840):20200399. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0399. Epub 2021 Nov 1.
Humans have a remarkable capacity to finely control the muscles of the larynx, via distinct patterns of cortical topography and innervation that may underpin our sophisticated vocal capabilities compared with non-human primates. Here, we investigated the behavioural and neural correlates of laryngeal control, and their relationship to vocal expertise, using an imitation task that required adjustments of larynx musculature during speech. Highly trained human singers and non-singer control participants modulated voice pitch and vocal tract length (VTL) to mimic auditory speech targets, while undergoing real-time anatomical scans of the vocal tract and functional scans of brain activity. Multivariate analyses of speech acoustics, larynx movements and brain activation data were used to quantify vocal modulation behaviour and to search for neural representations of the two modulated vocal parameters during the preparation and execution of speech. We found that singers showed more accurate task-relevant modulations of speech pitch and VTL (i.e. larynx height, as measured with vocal tract MRI) during speech imitation; this was accompanied by stronger representation of VTL within a region of the right somatosensory cortex. Our findings suggest a common neural basis for enhanced vocal control in speech and song. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)'.
人类具有精细控制喉部肌肉的非凡能力，通过独特的皮质拓扑和神经支配模式，这可能支撑了我们与非人类灵长类动物相比更为复杂的发声能力。在这里，我们通过模仿任务研究了喉部控制的行为和神经相关性，以及它们与发声专业知识的关系，该任务要求在说话时调整喉部肌肉。经过高度训练的人类歌手和非歌手对照组参与者调节了声音的音调和声道长度（VTL），以模仿听觉语音目标，同时对声道进行实时解剖扫描和大脑活动的功能扫描。对语音声学、喉部运动和大脑激活数据的多元分析用于量化语音调制行为，并在言语的准备和执行过程中搜索两个调制语音参数的神经表示。我们发现歌手在言语模仿过程中表现出更准确的与任务相关的语音音调和 VTL（即通过声道 MRI 测量的喉高）的调制；这伴随着右侧躯体感觉皮层内 VTL 的更强表示。我们的发现表明，增强的言语和歌唱中的发声控制具有共同的神经基础。本文是主题为“语音调制：从起源和机制到社会影响（第一部分）”的一部分。
