Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over left angular gyrus modulates the predictability gain in degraded speech comprehension

Increased neural activity in left angular gyrus (AG) accompanies successful comprehension of acoustically degraded but highly predictable sentences, as previous functional imaging studies have shown. However, it remains unclear whether the left AG is causally relevant for the comprehension of degraded speech. Here, we applied transient virtual lesions to either the left AG or superior parietal lobe (SPL, as a control area) with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) while healthy volunteers listened to and repeated sentences with high- versus low-predictable endings and different noise vocoding levels. We expected that rTMS of AG should selectively modulate the predictability gain (i.e., the comprehension benefit from sentences with high-predictable endings) at a medium degradation level. We found that rTMS of AG indeed reduced the predictability gain at a medium degradation level of 4-band noise vocoding (relative to control rTMS of SPL). In contrast, the behavioral perturbation induced by rTMS changed with increased signal quality. Hence, at 8-band noise vocoding, rTMS over AG versus SPL decreased the number of correctly repeated keywords for sentences with low-predictable endings. Together, these results show that the degree of the rTMS interference depended jointly on signal quality and predictability. Our results provide the first causal evidence that the left AG is a critical node for facilitating speech comprehension in challenging listening conditions.

Perceptual chunking and its effect on memory in speech processing: ERP and behavioral evidence

We examined how perceptual chunks of varying size in utterances can influence immediate memory of heard items (monosyllabic words). Using behavioral measures and event-related potentials (N400) we evaluated the quality of the memory trace for targets taken from perceived temporal groups (TGs) of three and four items. Variations in the amplitude of the N400 showed a better memory trace for items presented in TGs of three compared to those in groups of four. Analyses of behavioral responses along with P300 components also revealed effects of chunk position in the utterance. This is the first study to measure the online effects of perceptual chunks on the memory trace of spoken items. Taken together, the N400 and P300 responses demonstrate that the perceptual chunking of speech facilitates information buffering and a processing on a chunk-by-chunk basis.

Prediction in the service of comprehension: modulated early brain responses to omitted speech segments

Speech signals are often compromised by disruptions originating from external (e.g., masking noise) or internal (e.g., inaccurate articulation) sources. Speech comprehension thus entails detecting and replacing missing information based on predictive and restorative neural mechanisms. The present study targets predictive mechanisms by investigating the influence of a speech segment's predictability on early, modality-specific electrophysiological responses to this segment's omission. Predictability was manipulated in simple physical terms in a single-word framework (Experiment 1) or in more complex semantic terms in a sentence framework (Experiment 2). In both experiments, final consonants of the German words Lachs ([laks], salmon) or Latz ([lats], bib) were occasionally omitted, resulting in the syllable La ([la], no semantic meaning), while brain responses were measured with multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG). In both experiments, the occasional presentation of the fragment La elicited a larger omission response when the final speech segment had been predictable. The omission response occurred ∼125-165 msec after the expected onset of the final segment and showed characteristics of the omission mismatch negativity (MMN), with generators in auditory cortical areas. Suggestive of a general auditory predictive mechanism at work, this main observation was robust against varying source of predictive information or attentional allocation, differing between the two experiments. Source localization further suggested the omission response enhancement by predictability to emerge from left superior temporal gyrus and left angular gyrus in both experiments, with additional experiment-specific contributions. These results are consistent with the existence of predictive coding mechanisms in the central auditory system, and suggestive of the general predictive properties of the auditory system to support spoken word recognition.