Damera Srikanth R, Chang Lillian, Nikolov Plamen P, Mattei James A, Banerjee Suneel, Glezer Laurie S, Cox Patrick H, Jiang Xiong, Rauschecker Josef P, Riesenhuber Maximilian
Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
Neurobiol Lang (Camb). 2023 Jul 20;4(3):420-434. doi: 10.1162/nol_a_00108. eCollection 2023.
The existence of a neural representation for whole words (i.e., a lexicon) is a common feature of many models of speech processing. Prior studies have provided evidence for a visual lexicon containing representations of whole written words in an area of the ventral visual stream known as the . Similar experimental support for an auditory lexicon containing representations of spoken words has yet to be shown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging rapid adaptation techniques, we provide evidence for an auditory lexicon in the in the human left anterior superior temporal gyrus that contains representations highly selective for individual spoken words. Furthermore, we show that familiarization with novel auditory words sharpens the selectivity of their representations in the auditory word form area. These findings reveal strong parallels in how the brain represents written and spoken words, showing convergent processing strategies across modalities in the visual and auditory ventral streams.
对于整个单词的神经表征（即词汇表）的存在是许多语音处理模型的一个共同特征。先前的研究已经为一个视觉词汇表提供了证据，该词汇表在腹侧视觉流的一个被称为 的区域中包含整个书面单词的表征。然而，对于包含口语单词表征的听觉词汇表，尚未有类似的实验支持。利用功能磁共振成像快速适应技术，我们为人类左前颞上回中的听觉词汇表提供了证据，该词汇表包含对单个口语单词具有高度选择性的表征。此外，我们表明，对新的听觉单词的熟悉会增强它们在听觉词形区域中表征的选择性。这些发现揭示了大脑在表征书面和口语单词方式上的强烈相似性，表明在视觉和听觉腹侧流中跨模态的趋同处理策略。
