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Khanna AR, Muñoz W, Kim YJ, Kfir Y, Paulk AC, Jamali M, Cai J, Mustroph ML, Caprara I, Hardstone R, Mejdell M, Meszéna D, Zuckerman A, Schweitzer J, Cash S, Williams ZM. Single-neuronal elements of speech production in humans. Nature 2024; 626:603-610. [PMID: 38297120 PMCID: PMC10866697 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06982-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024]
Abstract
Humans are capable of generating extraordinarily diverse articulatory movement combinations to produce meaningful speech. This ability to orchestrate specific phonetic sequences, and their syllabification and inflection over subsecond timescales allows us to produce thousands of word sounds and is a core component of language1,2. The fundamental cellular units and constructs by which we plan and produce words during speech, however, remain largely unknown. Here, using acute ultrahigh-density Neuropixels recordings capable of sampling across the cortical column in humans, we discover neurons in the language-dominant prefrontal cortex that encoded detailed information about the phonetic arrangement and composition of planned words during the production of natural speech. These neurons represented the specific order and structure of articulatory events before utterance and reflected the segmentation of phonetic sequences into distinct syllables. They also accurately predicted the phonetic, syllabic and morphological components of upcoming words and showed a temporally ordered dynamic. Collectively, we show how these mixtures of cells are broadly organized along the cortical column and how their activity patterns transition from articulation planning to production. We also demonstrate how these cells reliably track the detailed composition of consonant and vowel sounds during perception and how they distinguish processes specifically related to speaking from those related to listening. Together, these findings reveal a remarkably structured organization and encoding cascade of phonetic representations by prefrontal neurons in humans and demonstrate a cellular process that can support the production of speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arjun R Khanna
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - William Muñoz
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Yoav Kfir
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Angelique C Paulk
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mohsen Jamali
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jing Cai
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Martina L Mustroph
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Irene Caprara
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Richard Hardstone
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mackenna Mejdell
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Domokos Meszéna
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Jeffrey Schweitzer
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sydney Cash
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ziv M Williams
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA, USA.
- Harvard Medical School, Program in Neuroscience, Boston, MA, USA.
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