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Wong ECH, Wong MN, Velleman SL. Acoustic Analyses of Tone Productions in Sequencing Contexts Among Cantonese-Speaking Preschool Children With and Without Childhood Apraxia of Speech. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2024; 67:1682-1711. [PMID: 38662942 DOI: 10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE Pitch variations (tone productions) have been reported as a measure to differentiate Cantonese-speaking children with and without childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). This study aims to examine fundamental frequency (F0) changes within syllables and the effects of syllable structure, lexical status, and syllable positions on F0 in Cantonese-speaking preschool children with and without CAS. METHOD Six children with CAS, six children with non-CAS speech sound disorder plus language disorder (S&LD), 22 children with speech sound disorder only (SSD), and 63 children with typical speech-language development (TD) performed the tone sequencing task (TST). Growth curve analysis was employed to analyze and compare the F0 values within syllables with three Cantonese tones (high level, high rising, and low falling). The analysis considered the effects of syllable structure (vowel and consonant-vowel), lexical status (word and nonword), and syllable position (initial, medial, and final) on F0, as well as comparisons within and between groups. RESULTS Within each group, the effects of syllable structure and position on F0 values were found with different patterns. Between-group comparisons showed that the CAS group had reduced F0 contrasts. The CAS group could be differentiated from the control groups based on interactions of F0 with syllable structure and position, but not lexical status. The dissimilarity of F0 values detected between the CAS and SSD/TD groups was more prominent than that observed between the CAS and S&LD groups. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that Cantonese-speaking children with CAS had difficulty in varying F0 within syllables as compared to those without CAS, suggesting pitch variation difficulty and language-specific impairment profiles in CAS. Future investigations of objective measures for identifying Cantonese speakers with CAS and cross-linguistic investigations using growth curve analysis and the TST are suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eddy C H Wong
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom
| | - Min Ney Wong
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom
- Research Institute for Smart Ageing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom
- The HK PolyU-PKU Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom
| | - Shelley L Velleman
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Vermont, Burlington
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2
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Yu J, Zou Y, Wu Y. The neural mechanisms underlying the processing of consonant, vowel and tone during Chinese typing: an fNIRS study. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1258480. [PMID: 38178832 PMCID: PMC10766364 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1258480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Many studies have explored the role of consonant, vowel, and tone in Chinese word identification or sentence comprehension. However, few studies have explored their roles and neural basis during Chinese word production, especially when involving neural basis. The present fNIRS study investigated the neural mechanisms of consonant, vowel, and tone processing during Chinese typing. Participants were asked to name the Chinese characters displayed on a computer screen by typing on a keyboard while hearing a simultaneously presented auditory stimulus. The auditory stimulus was either consistent with the characters' pronunciation (consistent condition) or mismatched in the consonant, vowel, or tone of the character pronunciation. The fNIRS results showed that compared with the consistent condition (as baseline), the consonant mismatch condition evoked lower levels of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus Broca's triangle and left superior temporal gyrus. Vowel mismatch condition evoked a higher level of HbO activation in the top of the left inferior frontal gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus. The regions and patterns of brain activation evoked by tone mismatch were the same as those of vowel mismatch. The study indicated that consonant, vowel and tone all play a role in Chinese character production. The sensitive brain areas were all in the left hemisphere. However, the neural mechanism of consonant processing differed from vowel processing in both brain regions and patterns, while tone and vowel processing shared the same regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianan Yu
- School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, China
| | - Yun Zou
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, United States
| | - Yan Wu
- School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, China
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3
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Zhang M, Zhang H, Tang E, Ding H, Zhang Y. Evaluating the Relative Perceptual Salience of Linguistic and Emotional Prosody in Quiet and Noisy Contexts. Behav Sci (Basel) 2023; 13:800. [PMID: 37887450 PMCID: PMC10603920 DOI: 10.3390/bs13100800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023] Open
Abstract
How people recognize linguistic and emotional prosody in different listening conditions is essential for understanding the complex interplay between social context, cognition, and communication. The perception of both lexical tones and emotional prosody depends on prosodic features including pitch, intensity, duration, and voice quality. However, it is unclear which aspect of prosody is perceptually more salient and resistant to noise. This study aimed to investigate the relative perceptual salience of emotional prosody and lexical tone recognition in quiet and in the presence of multi-talker babble noise. Forty young adults randomly sampled from a pool of native Mandarin Chinese with normal hearing listened to monosyllables either with or without background babble noise and completed two identification tasks, one for emotion recognition and the other for lexical tone recognition. Accuracy and speed were recorded and analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects models. Compared with emotional prosody, lexical tones were more perceptually salient in multi-talker babble noise. Native Mandarin Chinese participants identified lexical tones more accurately and quickly than vocal emotions at the same signal-to-noise ratio. Acoustic and cognitive dissimilarities between linguistic prosody and emotional prosody may have led to the phenomenon, which calls for further explorations into the underlying psychobiological and neurophysiological mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minyue Zhang
- Speech-Language-Hearing Center, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; (M.Z.); (H.Z.); (E.T.)
| | - Hui Zhang
- Speech-Language-Hearing Center, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; (M.Z.); (H.Z.); (E.T.)
| | - Enze Tang
- Speech-Language-Hearing Center, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; (M.Z.); (H.Z.); (E.T.)
| | - Hongwei Ding
- Speech-Language-Hearing Center, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; (M.Z.); (H.Z.); (E.T.)
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences and Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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4
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Liang B, Li Y, Zhao W, Du Y. Bilateral human laryngeal motor cortex in perceptual decision of lexical tone and voicing of consonant. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4710. [PMID: 37543659 PMCID: PMC10404239 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40445-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Speech perception is believed to recruit the left motor cortex. However, the exact role of the laryngeal subregion and its right counterpart in speech perception, as well as their temporal patterns of involvement remain unclear. To address these questions, we conducted a hypothesis-driven study, utilizing transcranial magnetic stimulation on the left or right dorsal laryngeal motor cortex (dLMC) when participants performed perceptual decision on Mandarin lexical tone or consonant (voicing contrast) presented with or without noise. We used psychometric function and hierarchical drift-diffusion model to disentangle perceptual sensitivity and dynamic decision-making parameters. Results showed that bilateral dLMCs were engaged with effector specificity, and this engagement was left-lateralized with right upregulation in noise. Furthermore, the dLMC contributed to various decision stages depending on the hemisphere and task difficulty. These findings substantially advance our understanding of the hemispherical lateralization and temporal dynamics of bilateral dLMC in sensorimotor integration during speech perceptual decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baishen Liang
- Institute of Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yanchang Li
- Institute of Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Wanying Zhao
- Institute of Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Yi Du
- Institute of Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, 200031, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 102206, China.
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5
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Guo Z, Chen F. Decoding lexical tones and vowels in imagined tonal monosyllables using fNIRS signals. J Neural Eng 2022; 19. [PMID: 36317255 DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/ac9e1d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Objective.Speech is a common way of communication. Decoding verbal intent could provide a naturalistic communication way for people with severe motor disabilities. Active brain computer interaction (BCI) speller is one of the most commonly used speech BCIs. To reduce the spelling time of Chinese words, identifying vowels and tones that are embedded in imagined Chinese words is essential. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been widely used in BCI because it is portable, non-invasive, safe, low cost, and has a relatively high spatial resolution.Approach.In this study, an active BCI speller based on fNIRS is presented by covertly rehearsing tonal monosyllables with vowels (i.e. /a/, /i/, /o/, and /u/) and four lexical tones in Mandarin Chinese (i.e. tones 1, 2, 3, and 4) for 10 s.Main results.fNIRS results showed significant differences in the right superior temporal gyrus between imagined vowels with tone 2/3/4 and those with tone 1 (i.e. more activations and stronger connections to other brain regions for imagined vowels with tones 2/3/4 than for those with tone 1). Speech-related areas for tone imagery (i.e. the right hemisphere) provided majority of information for identifying tones, while the left hemisphere had advantages in vowel identification. Having decoded both vowels and tones during the post-stimulus 15 s period, the average classification accuracies exceeded 40% and 70% in multiclass (i.e. four classes) and binary settings, respectively. To spell words more quickly, the time window size for decoding was reduced from 15 s to 2.5 s while the classification accuracies were not significantly reduced.Significance.For the first time, this work demonstrated the possibility of discriminating lexical tones and vowels in imagined tonal syllables simultaneously. In addition, the reduced time window for decoding indicated that the spelling time of Chinese words could be significantly reduced in the fNIRS-based BCIs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zengzhi Guo
- School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People's Republic of China.,Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China
| | - Fei Chen
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China
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6
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Wei Y, Liang X, Guo X, Wang X, Qi Y, Ali R, Wu M, Qian R, Wang M, Qiu B, Li H, Fu X, Chen L. Brain hemispheres with right temporal lobe damage swap dominance in early auditory processing of lexical tones. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:909796. [PMID: 36090259 PMCID: PMC9459135 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.909796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Labor division of the two brain hemispheres refers to the dominant processing of input information on one side of the brain. At an early stage, or a preattentive stage, the right brain hemisphere is shown to dominate the auditory processing of tones, including lexical tones. However, little is known about the influence of brain damage on the labor division of the brain hemispheres for the auditory processing of linguistic tones. Here, we demonstrate swapped dominance of brain hemispheres at the preattentive stage of auditory processing of Chinese lexical tones after a stroke in the right temporal lobe (RTL). In this study, we frequently presented lexical tones to a group of patients with a stroke in the RTL and infrequently varied the tones to create an auditory contrast. The contrast evoked a mismatch negativity response, which indexes auditory processing at the preattentive stage. In the participants with a stroke in the RTL, the mismatch negativity response was lateralized to the left side, in contrast to the right lateralization pattern in the control participants. The swapped dominance of brain hemispheres indicates that the RTL is a core area for early-stage auditory tonal processing. Our study indicates the necessity of rehabilitating tonal processing functions for tonal language speakers who suffer an RTL injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yarui Wei
- Biomedical Engineering Center, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
- Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xiuyuan Liang
- Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Xiaotao Guo
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Xiaoxiao Wang
- Biomedical Engineering Center, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Yunyi Qi
- Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Rizwan Ali
- Biomedical Engineering Center, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Ming Wu
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Ruobing Qian
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Ming Wang
- Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Bensheng Qiu
- Biomedical Engineering Center, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Huawei Li
- Clinical Hearing Center, Affiliated Eye and ENT Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xianming Fu
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Lin Chen
- Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
- Clinical Hearing Center, Affiliated Eye and ENT Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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7
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Shao J, Zhang C, Zhang G, Zhang Y, Pattamadilok C. The effects of alphabetic literacy, linguistic-processing demand and tone type on the dichotic listening of lexical tones. Front Psychol 2022; 13:877684. [PMID: 35959041 PMCID: PMC9360803 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.877684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain lateralization of lexical tone processing remains a matter of debate. In this study we used a dichotic listening paradigm to examine the influences of the knowledge of Jyutping (a romanization writing system which provides explicit Cantonese tone markers), linguistic-processing demand and tone type on the ear preference pattern of native tone processing in Hong Kong Cantonese speakers. While participants with little knowledge of Jyutping showed a previously reported left-ear advantage (LEA), those with a good level of Jyutping expertise exhibited either a right-ear advantage or bilateral processing during lexical tone identification and contour tone discrimination, respectively. As for the effect of linguistic-processing demand, while an LEA was found in acoustic/phonetic perception situations, this advantage disappeared and was replaced by a bilateral pattern in conditions that involved a greater extent of linguistic processing, suggesting an increased involvement of the left hemisphere. Regarding the effect of tone type, both groups showed an LEA in level tone discrimination, but only the Jyutping group demonstrated a bilateral pattern in contour tone discrimination. Overall, knowledge of written codes of tones, greater degree of linguistic processing and contour tone processing seem to influence the brain lateralization of lexical tone processing in native listeners of Cantonese by increasing the recruitment of the left-hemisphere language network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Shao
- Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR, China
- *Correspondence: Caicai Zhang,
| | - Gaoyuan Zhang
- Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yubin Zhang
- Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Chotiga Pattamadilok
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-en-Provence, France
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8
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Liu L, Lai R, Singh L, Kalashnikova M, Wong PCM, Kasisopa B, Chen A, Onsuwan C, Burnham D. The tone atlas of perceptual discriminability and perceptual distance: Four tone languages and five language groups. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2022; 229:105106. [PMID: 35390675 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Some prior investigations suggest that tone perception is flexible, reasonably independent of native phonology, whereas others suggest it is constrained by native phonology. We address this issue in a systematic and comprehensive investigation of adult tone perception. Sampling from diverse tone and non-tone speaking communities, we tested discrimination of the three major tone systems (Cantonese, Thai, Mandarin) that dominate the tone perception literature, in relation to native language and language experience as well as stimulus variation (tone properties, presentation order, pitch cues) using linear mixed effect modelling and multidimensional scaling. There was an overall discrimination advantage for tone language speakers and for native tones. However, language- and tone-specific effects, and presentation order effects also emerged. Thus, over and above native phonology, stimulus variation exerts a powerful influence on tone discrimination. This study provides a tone atlas, a reference guide to inform empirical studies of tone sensitivity, both retrospectively and prospectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liquan Liu
- School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia; The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia; Center for Multilingualism in Society Across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, Norway; Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Australia.
| | - Regine Lai
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Marina Kalashnikova
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia; Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain; Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Spain
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Benjawan Kasisopa
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia
| | - Ao Chen
- School of Communication Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, China
| | - Chutamanee Onsuwan
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Center of Excellence in Intelligent Informatics, Speech and Language Technology, and Service Innovation (CILS), Thammasat University, Thailand
| | - Denis Burnham
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia.
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9
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Zhang L, Du Y. Lip movements enhance speech representations and effective connectivity in auditory dorsal stream. Neuroimage 2022; 257:119311. [PMID: 35589000 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Viewing speaker's lip movements facilitates speech perception, especially under adverse listening conditions, but the neural mechanisms of this perceptual benefit at the phonemic and feature levels remain unclear. This fMRI study addressed this question by quantifying regional multivariate representation and network organization underlying audiovisual speech-in-noise perception. Behaviorally, valid lip movements improved recognition of place of articulation to aid phoneme identification. Meanwhile, lip movements enhanced neural representations of phonemes in left auditory dorsal stream regions, including frontal speech motor areas and supramarginal gyrus (SMG). Moreover, neural representations of place of articulation and voicing features were promoted differentially by lip movements in these regions, with voicing enhanced in Broca's area while place of articulation better encoded in left ventral premotor cortex and SMG. Next, dynamic causal modeling (DCM) analysis showed that such local changes were accompanied by strengthened effective connectivity along the dorsal stream. Moreover, the neurite orientation dispersion of the left arcuate fasciculus, the bearing skeleton of auditory dorsal stream, predicted the visual enhancements of neural representations and effective connectivity. Our findings provide novel insight to speech science that lip movements promote both local phonemic and feature encoding and network connectivity in the dorsal pathway and the functional enhancement is mediated by the microstructural architecture of the circuit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 100101; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 100049
| | - Yi Du
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 100101; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 100049; CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, China 200031; Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China 102206.
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10
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Xu X, Jin Y, Pan N, Cao M, Jing J, Ma J, Fan X, Tan S, Song X, Li X. A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study on the White Matter Structures Related to the Phonology in Cantonese-Mandarin Bilinguals. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:851669. [PMID: 35601910 PMCID: PMC9120590 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.851669] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cantonese and Mandarin are logographic languages, and the phonology is the main difference between the two languages. It is unclear whether the long-term experience of Cantonese-Mandarin bilingualism will shape different brain white matter structures related to phonological processing. A total of 30 Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals and 30 Mandarin monolinguals completed diffusion-weighted imaging scan and phonological processing tasks. The tractography and tract-based spatial statistics were used to investigate the structural differences in the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) between Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals and Mandarin monolinguals. The post-hoc correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the different structures with phonological processing skills. Compared to the Mandarin monolinguals, the Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals had higher fractional anisotropy (FA) along the left ILFs higher mean diffusivity (MD) along the right IFOF and the temporoparietal segment of SLF (tSLF), higher axial diffusivity (AD) in the right IFOF and left ILF, and lower number of streamlines in the bilateral tSLF. The mean AD of the different voxels in the right IFOF and the mean FA of the different voxels in the left ILF were positively correlated with the inverse efficiency score (IES) of the Cantonese auditory and Mandarin visual rhyming judgment tasks, respectively, within the bilingual group. The correlation between FA and IES was different among the groups. The long-term experience of Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals shapes the different brain white matter structures in tSLF, IFOF, and ILF. Compared to the monolinguals, the bilinguals' white matter showed higher diffusivity, especially in the axonal direction. These changes were related to bilinguals' phonological processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyu Xu
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yuying Jin
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Ning Pan
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Muqing Cao
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jin Jing
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jingwen Ma
- Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaoxuan Fan
- Wuhan Children’s Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Si Tan
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaojing Song
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiuhong Li
- Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
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11
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Whitehead JC, Armony JL. Intra-individual Reliability of Voice- and Music-elicited Responses and their Modulation by Expertise. Neuroscience 2022; 487:184-197. [PMID: 35182696 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2021] [Revised: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/10/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
A growing number of functional neuroimaging studies have identified regions within the temporal lobe, particularly along the planum polare and planum temporale, that respond more strongly to music than other types of acoustic stimuli, including voice. This "music preferred" regions have been reported using a variety of stimulus sets, paradigms and analysis approaches and their consistency across studies confirmed through meta-analyses. However, the critical question of intra-subject reliability of these responses has received less attention. Here, we directly assessed this important issue by contrasting brain responses to musical vs. vocal stimuli in the same subjects across three consecutive fMRI runs, using different types of stimuli. Moreover, we investigated whether these music- and voice-preferred responses were reliably modulated by expertise. Results demonstrated that music-preferred activity previously reported in temporal regions, and its modulation by expertise, exhibits a high intra-subject reliability. However, we also found that activity in some extra-temporal regions, such as the precentral and middle frontal gyri, did depend on the particular stimuli employed, which may explain why these are less consistently reported in the literature. Taken together, our findings confirm and extend the notion that specific regions in the brain consistently respond more strongly to certain socially-relevant stimulus categories, such as faces, voices and music, but that some of these responses appear to depend, at least to some extent, on the specific features of the paradigm employed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jocelyne C Whitehead
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, Canada; BRAMS Laboratory, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montreal, Canada; Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
| | - Jorge L Armony
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, Canada; BRAMS Laboratory, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montreal, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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12
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Zhang X, Li J, Du Y. Melodic Intonation Therapy on Non-fluent Aphasia After Stroke: A Systematic Review and Analysis on Clinical Trials. Front Neurosci 2022; 15:753356. [PMID: 35153655 PMCID: PMC8829877 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.753356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Melodic intonation therapy (MIT) is a melodic musical training method that could be combined with language rehabilitation. However, some of the existing literature focuses on theoretical mechanism research, while others only focus on clinical behavioral evidence. Few clinical experimental studies can combine the two for behavioral and mechanism analysis. This review aimed at systematizing recent results from studies that have delved explicitly into the MIT effect on non-fluent aphasia by their study design properties, summarizing the findings, and identifying knowledge gaps for future work. MIT clinical trials and case studies were retrieved and teased out the results to explore the validity and relevance of these results. These studies focused on MIT intervention for patients with non-fluent aphasia in stroke recovery period. After retrieving 128 MIT-related articles, 39 valid RCT studies and case reports were provided for analysis. Our summary shows that behavioral measurements at MIT are excessive and provide insufficient evidence of MRI imaging structure. This proves that MIT still needs many MRI studies to determine its clinical evidence and intervention targets. The strengthening of large-scale clinical evidence of imaging observations will result in the clear neural circuit prompts and prediction models proposed for the MIT treatment and its prognosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoying Zhang
- School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Neural Injury and Rehabilitation, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, China
- Center of Neural Injury and Repair, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, Music Therapy Center, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, China
| | - Jianjun Li
- School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Neural Injury and Rehabilitation, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, China
- Center of Neural Injury and Repair, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, Music Therapy Center, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, China
- Chinese Institute of Rehabilitation Science, Beijing, China
| | - Yi Du
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
- Departments of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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13
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Xia Z, Yang T, Cui X, Hoeft F, Liu H, Zhang X, Liu X, Shu H. Atypical Relationships Between Neurofunctional Features of Print-Sound Integration and Reading Abilities in Chinese Children With Dyslexia. Front Psychol 2022; 12:748644. [PMID: 35145448 PMCID: PMC8822058 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 12/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Conquering print-sound mappings (e.g., grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules) is vital for developing fluent reading skills. In neuroimaging research, this ability can be indexed by activation differences between audiovisual congruent against incongruent conditions in brain areas such as the left superior temporal cortex. In line with it, individuals with dyslexia have difficulty in tasks requiring print-sound processing, accompanied by a reduced neural integration. However, existing evidence is almost restricted to alphabetic languages. Whether and how multisensory processing of print and sound is impaired in Chinese dyslexia remains underexplored. In this study, we applied a passive audiovisual integration paradigm with functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the possible dysfunctions in processing character-sound (opaque; semantics can be automatically accessed) and pinyin-sound associations (transparent; no particular meaning can be confirmed) in Chinese dyslexic children. Unexpectedly, the dyslexic group did not show reduced neural integration compared with typically developing readers in either character or pinyin experiment. However, the results revealed atypical correlations between neural integration and different reading abilities in dyslexia. Specifically, while the neural integration in the left inferior frontal cortex in processing character-sound pairs correlated with silent reading comprehension in both children with and without dyslexia, it was associated with morphological awareness (semantic-related) in controls but with rapid naming (phonological-related) in dyslexics. This result indicates Chinese dyslexic children may not use the same grapho-semantic processing strategy as their typical peers do. As for pinyin-sound processing, while a stronger neural integration in the direction of "congruent > incongruent" in the left occipito-temporal cortex and bilateral superior temporal cortices was associated with better oral reading fluency in the control group, an opposite pattern was found in dyslexia. This finding may reflect dyslexia's dysfunctional recruitment of the regions in grapho-phonological processing, which further impedes character learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhichao Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Ting Yang
- Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Xin Cui
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Fumiko Hoeft
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hong Liu
- Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
| | - Xianglin Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiangping Liu
- Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Hua Shu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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14
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Abstract
Human speech perception results from neural computations that transform external acoustic speech signals into internal representations of words. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) contains the nonprimary auditory cortex and is a critical locus for phonological processing. Here, we describe how speech sound representation in the STG relies on fundamentally nonlinear and dynamical processes, such as categorization, normalization, contextual restoration, and the extraction of temporal structure. A spatial mosaic of local cortical sites on the STG exhibits complex auditory encoding for distinct acoustic-phonetic and prosodic features. We propose that as a population ensemble, these distributed patterns of neural activity give rise to abstract, higher-order phonemic and syllabic representations that support speech perception. This review presents a multi-scale, recurrent model of phonological processing in the STG, highlighting the critical interface between auditory and language systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilina Bhaya-Grossman
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA;
- Joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, California 94720, USA
| | - Edward F Chang
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA;
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15
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Wong ECH, Velleman SL, Tong MCF, Lee KYS. Pitch Variation in Children With Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Preliminary Findings. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2021; 30:1511-1524. [PMID: 34010014 DOI: 10.1044/2021_ajslp-20-00150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Introduction Pitch variation, which refers to one's ability to vary fundamental frequency (F0) within or between syllables when speaking, has not been investigated in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). However, pitch variation plays an important role in tone languages, as varying F0 patterns communicate different lexical meanings. This study investigated pitch variation abilities in individuals with CAS via the tone-sequencing tasks (TSTs), focusing on task performance and the effects of syllable structure, lexical status, and tones. Method Three Cantonese-speaking children with CAS (aged 3;7-5;8 [years;months]) and six children without CAS participated in the study. Children without CAS were divided into two control groups, comprising those with speech and/or language impairment or typical development. TSTs consisted of 56 sets of five repetitions of stimuli. The stimuli varied in syllable structure, lexical status, and tones. Percentage of tones correct (PTC), consistency scores, F0 values, and acoustic repetition duration were measured. Results The CAS group performed more poorly than the control groups on the TST with respect to tone accuracy, consistency, and repetition duration. No interaction effects between group and syllable structure or group and lexical status were found. No significant difference was found on F0 values across time between Tone 1 and Tone 2 syllables in the CAS group. However, interaction effects between group and time points of F0 values on Tone 2 syllables were found. Discussion The results suggest that children with CAS have difficulty with pitch variation, which was revealed on the TST with respect to tone accuracy, consistency, and repetition duration. Moreover, children with CAS have difficulty in varying F0 values to produce high-rising tones and tend to use high-level tones to substitute. Clinically, the TST may be useful to assist in the diagnosis of CAS. Isolated vowel stimuli may be useful to test young children or children with severe impairment. Future investigations and development of a normed tool for children with CAS are suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eddy C H Wong
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
| | - Shelley L Velleman
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Vermont, Burlington
| | - Michael C F Tong
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
- The Institute of Human Communicative Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
| | - Kathy Y S Lee
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
- The Institute of Human Communicative Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
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16
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Połczyńska MM. Organizing Variables Affecting fMRI Estimates of Language Dominance in Patients with Brain Tumors. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11060694. [PMID: 34070413 PMCID: PMC8226970 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11060694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 05/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerous variables can affect the assessment of language dominance using presurgical functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) in patients with brain tumors. This work organizes the variables into confounding and modulating factors. Confounding factors give the appearance of changed language dominance. Most confounding factors are fMRI-specific and they can substantially disrupt the evaluation of language dominance. Confounding factors can be divided into two categories: tumor-related and fMRI analysis. The tumor-related confounds further subdivide into tumor characteristics (e.g., tumor grade) and tumor-induced conditions (aphasia). The fMRI analysis confounds represent technical aspects of fMRI methods (e.g., a fixed versus an individual threshold). Modulating factors can modify language dominance without confounding it. They are not fMRI-specific, and they can impact language dominance both in healthy individuals and neurosurgical patients. The effect of most modulating factors on fMRI language dominance is smaller than that of confounding factors. Modulating factors include demographics (e.g., age) and linguistic variables (e.g., early bilingualism). Three cases of brain tumors in the left hemisphere are presented to illustrate how modulating confounding and modulating factors can impact fMRI estimates of language dominance. Distinguishing between confounding and modulating factors can help interpret the results of presurgical language mapping with fMRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monika M Połczyńska
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA
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17
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Yuan D, Luo D, Kwok VPY, Zhou Y, Tian H, Yu Q, An J, Gao JH, Qiu S, Tan LH. Myeloarchitectonic Asymmetries of Language Regions in the Human Brain. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4169-4179. [PMID: 33825870 PMCID: PMC8328200 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Revised: 02/21/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
One prominent theory in neuroscience and psychology assumes that cortical regions for language are left hemisphere lateralized in the human brain. In the current study, we used a novel technique, quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI), to examine interhemispheric asymmetries in language regions in terms of macromolecular tissue volume (MTV) and quantitative longitudinal relaxation time (T1) maps in the living human brain. These two measures are known to reflect cortical myeloarchitecture from the microstructural perspective. One hundred and fifteen adults (55 male, 60 female) were examined for their myeloarchitectonic asymmetries of language regions. We found that the cortical myeloarchitecture of inferior frontal areas including the pars opercularis, pars triangularis, and pars orbitalis is left lateralized, while that of the middle temporal gyrus, Heschl’s gyrus, and planum temporale is right lateralized. Moreover, the leftward lateralization of myelination structure is significantly correlated with language skills measured by phonemic and speech tone awareness. This study reveals for the first time a mixed pattern of myeloarchitectonic asymmetries, which calls for a general theory to accommodate the full complexity of principles underlying human hemispheric specialization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Di Yuan
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration and Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.,Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Daiyi Luo
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration and Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.,Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Veronica P Y Kwok
- Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Yulong Zhou
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration and Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.,Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Haoyue Tian
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration and Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.,Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Qianqian Yu
- Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Jie An
- Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510400, China
| | - Jia-Hong Gao
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Center for MRI Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Shijun Qiu
- Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510400, China
| | - Li Hai Tan
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration and Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Collaborative Joint Laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.,Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
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18
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Zhang K, Sjerps MJ, Peng G. Integral perception, but separate processing: The perceptual normalization of lexical tones and vowels. Neuropsychologia 2021; 156:107839. [PMID: 33798490 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107839] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2020] [Revised: 03/20/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In tonal languages, speech variability arises in both lexical tone (i.e., suprasegmentally) and vowel quality (segmentally). Listeners can use surrounding speech context to overcome variability in both speech cues, a process known as extrinsic normalization. Although vowels are the main carriers of tones, it is still unknown whether the combined percept (lexical tone and vowel quality) is normalized integrally or in partly separate processes. Here we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the time course of lexical tone normalization and vowel normalization to answer this question. Cantonese adults listened to synthesized three-syllable stimuli in which the identity of a target syllable - ambiguous between high vs. mid-tone (Tone condition) or between /o/ vs. /u/ (Vowel condition) - was dependent on either the tone range (Tone condition) or the formant range (Vowel condition) of the first two syllables. It was observed that the ambiguous tone was more often interpreted as a high-level tone when the context had a relatively low pitch than when it had a high pitch (Tone condition). Similarly, the ambiguous vowel was more often interpreted as /o/ when the context had a relatively low formant range than when it had a relatively high formant range (Vowel condition). These findings show the typical pattern of extrinsic tone and vowel normalization. Importantly, the EEG results of participants showing the contrastive normalization effect demonstrated that the effects of vowel normalization could already be observed within the N2 time window (190-350 ms), while the first reliable effect of lexical tone normalization on cortical processing was observable only from the P3 time window (220-500 ms) onwards. The ERP patterns demonstrate that the contrastive perceptual normalization of lexical tones and that of vowels occur at least in partially separate time windows. This suggests that the extrinsic normalization can operate at the level of phonemes and tonemes separately instead of operating on the whole syllable at once.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaile Zhang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
| | - Matthias J Sjerps
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Kapittelweg 29, Nijmegen, 6525 EN, the Netherlands.
| | - Gang Peng
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1068 Xueyuan Boulevard, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
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19
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Zhu J, Chen X, Yang Y. Effects of Amateur Musical Experience on Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones by Native Chinese Adults: An ERP Study. Front Psychol 2021; 12:611189. [PMID: 33790832 PMCID: PMC8005537 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.611189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Music impacting on speech processing is vividly evidenced in most reports involving professional musicians, while the question of whether the facilitative effects of music are limited to experts or may extend to amateurs remains to be resolved. Previous research has suggested that analogous to language experience, musicianship also modulates lexical tone perception but the influence of amateur musical experience in adulthood is poorly understood. Furthermore, little is known about how acoustic information and phonological information of lexical tones are processed by amateur musicians. This study aimed to provide neural evidence of cortical plasticity by examining categorical perception of lexical tones in Chinese adults with amateur musical experience relative to the non-musician counterparts. Fifteen adult Chinese amateur musicians and an equal number of non-musicians participated in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment. Their mismatch negativities (MMNs) to lexical tones from Mandarin Tone 2–Tone 4 continuum and non-speech tone analogs were measured. It was hypothesized that amateur musicians would exhibit different MMNs to their non-musician counterparts in processing two aspects of information in lexical tones. Results showed that the MMN mean amplitude evoked by within-category deviants was significantly larger for amateur musicians than non-musicians regardless of speech or non-speech condition. This implies the strengthened processing of acoustic information by adult amateur musicians without the need of focused attention, as the detection of subtle acoustic nuances of pitch was measurably improved. In addition, the MMN peak latency elicited by across-category deviants was significantly shorter than that by within-category deviants for both groups, indicative of the earlier processing of phonological information than acoustic information of lexical tones at the pre-attentive stage. The results mentioned above suggest that cortical plasticity can still be induced in adulthood, hence non-musicians should be defined more strictly than before. Besides, the current study enlarges the population demonstrating the beneficial effects of musical experience on perceptual and cognitive functions, namely, the effects of enhanced speech processing from music are not confined to a small group of experts but extend to a large population of amateurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqiang Zhu
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Xiaoxiang Chen
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Yuxiao Yang
- Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
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20
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Li Y, Tang C, Lu J, Wu J, Chang EF. Human cortical encoding of pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1161. [PMID: 33608548 PMCID: PMC7896081 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21430-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2020] [Accepted: 01/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Languages can use a common repertoire of vocal sounds to signify distinct meanings. In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, pitch contours of syllables distinguish one word from another, whereas in non-tonal languages, such as English, pitch is used to convey intonation. The neural computations underlying language specialization in speech perception are unknown. Here, we use a cross-linguistic approach to address this. Native Mandarin- and English- speaking participants each listened to both Mandarin and English speech, while neural activity was directly recorded from the non-primary auditory cortex. Both groups show language-general coding of speaker-invariant pitch at the single electrode level. At the electrode population level, we find language-specific distribution of cortical tuning parameters in Mandarin speakers only, with enhanced sensitivity to Mandarin tone categories. Our results show that speech perception relies upon a shared cortical auditory feature processing mechanism, which may be tuned to the statistics of a given language. Different languages rely on different vocal sounds to convey meaning. Here the authors show that language-general coding of pitch occurs in the non-primary auditory cortex for both tonal (Mandarin Chinese) and non-tonal (English) languages, with some language specificity on the population level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuanning Li
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.,Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Claire Tang
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.,Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Junfeng Lu
- Brain Function Laboratory, Neurosurgical Institute of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.,Shanghai Key laboratory of Brain Function Restoration and Neural Regeneration, Shanghai, China
| | - Jinsong Wu
- Brain Function Laboratory, Neurosurgical Institute of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. .,Shanghai Key laboratory of Brain Function Restoration and Neural Regeneration, Shanghai, China. .,Neurologic Surgery Department, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. .,Institute of Brain-Intelligence Technology, Zhangjiang Lab, Shanghai, China.
| | - Edward F Chang
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA. .,Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
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21
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Feng G, Gan Z, Llanos F, Meng D, Wang S, Wong PCM, Chandrasekaran B. A distributed dynamic brain network mediates linguistic tone representation and categorization. Neuroimage 2021; 224:117410. [PMID: 33011415 PMCID: PMC7749825 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2020] [Revised: 08/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Successful categorization requires listeners to represent the incoming sensory information, resolve the "blooming, buzzing confusion" inherent to noisy sensory signals, and leverage the accumulated evidence towards making a decision. Despite decades of intense debate, the neural systems underlying speech categorization remain unresolved. Here we assessed the neural representation and categorization of lexical tones by native Mandarin speakers (N = 31) across a range of acoustic and contextual variabilities (talkers, perceptual saliences, and stimulus-contexts) using functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) and an evidence accumulation model of decision-making. Univariate activation and multivariate pattern analyses reveal that the acoustic-variability-tolerant representations of tone category are observed within the middle portion of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG). Activation patterns in the frontal and parietal regions also contained category-relevant information that was differentially sensitive to various forms of variability. The robustness of neural representations of tone category in a distributed fronto-temporoparietal network is associated with trial-by-trial decision-making parameters. These findings support a hybrid model involving a representational core within the STG that operates dynamically within an extensive frontoparietal network to support the representation and categorization of linguistic pitch patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gangyi Feng
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China; Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China.
| | - Zhenzhong Gan
- Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
| | - Fernando Llanos
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States
| | - Danting Meng
- Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
| | - Suiping Wang
- Center for the Study of Applied Psychology and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China; Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Bharath Chandrasekaran
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States.
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22
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Song F, Zhan Y, Ford JC, Cai DC, Fellows AM, Shan F, Song P, Chen G, Soli SD, Shi Y, Buckey JC. Increased Right Frontal Brain Activity During the Mandarin Hearing-in-Noise Test. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:614012. [PMID: 33390894 PMCID: PMC7773781 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.614012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2020] [Accepted: 11/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Purpose Previous studies have revealed increased frontal brain activation during speech comprehension in background noise. Few, however, used tonal languages. The normal pattern of brain activation during a challenging speech-in-nose task using a tonal language remains unclear. The Mandarin Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT) is a well-established test for assessing the ability to interpret speech in background noise. The current study used Mandarin HINT (MHINT) sentences and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess brain activation with MHINT sentences. Methods Thirty native Mandarin-speaking subjects with normal peripheral hearing were recruited. Functional MRI was performed while subjects were presented with either HINT “clear” sentences with low-level background noise [signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) = +3 dB] or “noisy” sentences with high-level background noise (SNR = −5 dB). Subjects were instructed to answer with a button press whether a visually presented target word was included in the sentence. Brain activation between noisy and clear sentences was compared. Activation in each condition was also compared to a resting, no sentence presentation, condition. Results Noisy sentence comprehension showed increased activity in areas associated with tone processing and working memory, including the right superior and middle frontal gyri [Brodmann Areas (BAs) 46, 10]. Reduced activity with noisy sentences was seen in auditory, language, memory and somatosensory areas, including the bilateral superior and middle temporal gyri, left Heschl’s gyrus (BAs 21, 22), right temporal pole (BA 38), bilateral amygdala-hippocampus junction, and parahippocampal gyrus (BAs 28, 35), left inferior parietal lobule extending to left postcentral gyrus (BAs 2, 40), and left putamen. Conclusion Increased frontal activation in the right hemisphere occurred when comprehending noisy spoken sentences in Mandarin. Compared to studies using non-tonal languages, this activation was strongly right-sided and involved subregions not previously reported. These findings may reflect additional effort in lexical tone perception in this tonal language. Additionally, this continuous fMRI protocol may offer a time-efficient way to assess group differences in brain activation with a challenging speech-in-noise task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fengxiang Song
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yi Zhan
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - James C Ford
- Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, United States.,Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Lebanon, NH, United States
| | - Dan-Chao Cai
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Abigail M Fellows
- Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, United States
| | - Fei Shan
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Pengrui Song
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Guochao Chen
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | | | - Yuxin Shi
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jay C Buckey
- Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, United States
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23
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Speech frequency-following response in human auditory cortex is more than a simple tracking. Neuroimage 2020; 226:117545. [PMID: 33186711 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Revised: 10/29/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The human auditory cortex is recently found to contribute to the frequency following response (FFR) and the cortical component has been shown to be more relevant to speech perception. However, it is not clear how cortical FFR may contribute to the processing of speech fundamental frequency (F0) and the dynamic pitch. Using intracranial EEG recordings, we observed a significant FFR at the fundamental frequency (F0) for both speech and speech-like harmonic complex stimuli in the human auditory cortex, even in the missing fundamental condition. Both the spectral amplitude and phase coherence of the cortical FFR showed a significant harmonic preference, and attenuated from the primary auditory cortex to the surrounding associative auditory cortex. The phase coherence of the speech FFR was found significantly higher than that of the harmonic complex stimuli, especially in the left hemisphere, showing a high timing fidelity of the cortical FFR in tracking dynamic F0 in speech. Spectrally, the frequency band of the cortical FFR was largely overlapped with the range of the human vocal pitch. Taken together, our study parsed the intrinsic properties of the cortical FFR and reveals a preference for speech-like sounds, supporting its potential role in processing speech intonation and lexical tones.
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24
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Chien PJ, Friederici AD, Hartwigsen G, Sammler D. Intonation processing increases task-specific fronto-temporal connectivity in tonal language speakers. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 42:161-174. [PMID: 32996647 PMCID: PMC7721241 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2020] [Revised: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Language comprehension depends on tight functional interactions between distributed brain regions. While these interactions are established for semantic and syntactic processes, the functional network of speech intonation – the linguistic variation of pitch – has been scarcely defined. Particularly little is known about intonation in tonal languages, in which pitch not only serves intonation but also expresses meaning via lexical tones. The present study used psychophysiological interaction analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to characterise the neural networks underlying intonation and tone processing in native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Participants categorised either intonation or tone of monosyllabic Mandarin words that gradually varied between statement and question and between Tone 2 and Tone 4. Intonation processing induced bilateral fronto‐temporal activity and increased functional connectivity between left inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral temporal regions, likely linking auditory perception and labelling of intonation categories in a phonological network. Tone processing induced bilateral temporal activity, associated with the auditory representation of tonal (phonemic) categories. Together, the present data demonstrate the breadth of the functional intonation network in a tonal language including higher‐level phonological processes in addition to auditory representations common to both intonation and tone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei-Ju Chien
- International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Otto Hahn Group 'Neural Bases of Intonation in Speech and Music', Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Lise Meitner Research Group 'Cognition and Plasticity', Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Angela D Friederici
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Gesa Hartwigsen
- Lise Meitner Research Group 'Cognition and Plasticity', Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniela Sammler
- Otto Hahn Group 'Neural Bases of Intonation in Speech and Music', Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
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25
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Musical Experience Offsets Age-Related Decline in Understanding Speech-in-Noise: Type of Training Does Not Matter, Working Memory Is the Key. Ear Hear 2020; 42:258-270. [PMID: 32826504 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Speech comprehension under "cocktail party" scenarios deteriorates with age even in the absence of measurable hearing loss. Musical training is suggested to counteract the age-related decline in speech-in-noise (SIN) perception, yet which aspect of musical plasticity contributes to this compensation remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of musical experience and aging on SIN perception ability. We hypothesized a key mediation role of auditory working memory in ameliorating deficient SIN perception in older adults by musical training. DESIGN Forty-eight older musicians, 29 older nonmusicians, 48 young musicians, and 24 young nonmusicians all with (near) normal peripheral hearing were recruited. The SIN task was recognizing nonsense speech sentences either perceptually colocated or separated with a noise masker (energetic masking) or a two-talker speech masker (informational masking). Auditory working memory was measured by auditory digit span. Path analysis was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of musical expertise and age on SIN perception performance. RESULTS Older musicians outperformed older nonmusicians in auditory working memory and all SIN conditions (noise separation, noise colocation, speech separation, speech colocation), but such musician advantages were absent in young adults. Path analysis showed that age and musical training had opposite effects on auditory working memory, which played a significant mediation role in SIN perception. In addition, the type of musical training did not differentiate SIN perception regardless of age. CONCLUSIONS These results provide evidence that musical training offsets age-related speech perception deficit at adverse listening conditions by preserving auditory working memory. Our findings highlight auditory working memory in supporting speech perception amid competing noise in older adults, and underline musical training as a means of "cognitive reserve" against declines in speech comprehension and cognition in aging populations.
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26
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Shao J, Zhang C. Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1411. [PMID: 32733321 PMCID: PMC7358218 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital amusia is an inborn neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing, which also induces impairment in lexical tone perception. However, it has not been examined before how the brain specialization of lexical tone perception is affected in amusics. The current study adopted the dichotic listening paradigm to examine this issue, testing 18 Cantonese-speaking amusics and 18 matched controls on pitch/lexical tone identification and discrimination in three conditions: non-speech tone, low syllable variation, and high syllable variation. For typical listeners, the discrimination accuracy was higher with shorter RT in the left ear regardless of the stimulus types, suggesting a left-ear advantage in discrimination. When the demand of phonological processing increased, as in the identification task, shorter RT was still obtained in the left ear, however, the identification accuracy revealed a bilateral pattern. Taken together, the results of the identification task revealed a reduced LEA or a shift from the right hemisphere to bilateral processing in identification. Amusics exhibited overall poorer performance in both identification and discrimination tasks, indicating that pitch/lexical tone processing in dichotic listening settings was impaired, but there was no evidence that amusics showed different ear preference from controls. These findings provided temporary evidence that although amusics demonstrate deficient neural mechanisms of pitch/lexical tone processing, their ear preference patterns might not be affected. These results broadened the understanding of the nature of pitch and lexical tone processing deficiencies in amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Shao
- School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.,Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.,Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
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27
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Chien PJ, Friederici AD, Hartwigsen G, Sammler D. Neural correlates of intonation and lexical tone in tonal and non-tonal language speakers. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 41:1842-1858. [PMID: 31957928 PMCID: PMC7268089 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24916] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Revised: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Intonation, the modulation of pitch in speech, is a crucial aspect of language that is processed in right‐hemispheric regions, beyond the classical left‐hemispheric language system. Whether or not this notion generalises across languages remains, however, unclear. Particularly, tonal languages are an interesting test case because of the dual linguistic function of pitch that conveys lexical meaning in form of tone, in addition to intonation. To date, only few studies have explored how intonation is processed in tonal languages, how this compares to tone and between tonal and non‐tonal language speakers. The present fMRI study addressed these questions by testing Mandarin and German speakers with Mandarin material. Both groups categorised mono‐syllabic Mandarin words in terms of intonation, tone, and voice gender. Systematic comparisons of brain activity of the two groups between the three tasks showed large cross‐linguistic commonalities in the neural processing of intonation in left fronto‐parietal, right frontal, and bilateral cingulo‐opercular regions. These areas are associated with general phonological, specific prosodic, and controlled categorical decision‐making processes, respectively. Tone processing overlapped with intonation processing in left fronto‐parietal areas, in both groups, but evoked additional activity in bilateral temporo‐parietal semantic regions and subcortical areas in Mandarin speakers only. Together, these findings confirm cross‐linguistic commonalities in the neural implementation of intonation processing but dissociations for semantic processing of tone only in tonal language speakers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei-Ju Chien
- International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Otto Hahn Group "Neural Bases of Intonation in Speech and Music", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Lise Meitner Research Group "Cognition and Plasticity", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Angela D Friederici
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Gesa Hartwigsen
- Lise Meitner Research Group "Cognition and Plasticity", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniela Sammler
- Otto Hahn Group "Neural Bases of Intonation in Speech and Music", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
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28
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Del Maschio N, Fedeli D, Sulpizio S, Abutalebi J. The relationship between bilingual experience and gyrification in adulthood: A cross-sectional surface-based morphometry study. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2019; 198:104680. [PMID: 31465990 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2019] [Revised: 08/13/2019] [Accepted: 08/14/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Neuroimaging evidence suggests that bilingualism may act as a source of neural plasticity. However, prior work has mostly focused on bilingualism-induced alterations in gray matter volume and white matter tract microstructure, with additional effects related to other neurostructural indices that might have remained undetected. The degree of cortical folding or gyrification is a morphometric parameter which provides information about changes on the brain's surface during development, aging and disease. We used Surface-based Morphometry (SBM) to investigate the contribution of bilingual experience to gyrification from early adulthood to old age in a sample of bilinguals and monolingual controls. Despite widespread cortical folding reductions for all participants with increasing age, preserved gyrification exclusive to bilinguals was detected in the right cingulate and entorhinal cortices, regions vulnerable with normal and pathological brain aging. Our results provide novel insights on experience-related cortical reshaping and bilingualism-induced cortical plasticity in adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Del Maschio
- Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics (CNPL), University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano 20132, Italy
| | - Davide Fedeli
- Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics (CNPL), University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano 20132, Italy
| | - Simone Sulpizio
- Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics (CNPL), University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano 20132, Italy
| | - Jubin Abutalebi
- Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics (CNPL), University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano 20132, Italy.
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29
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Kwok VPY, Matthews S, Yakpo K, Tan LH. Neural correlates and functional connectivity of lexical tone processing in reading. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2019; 196:104662. [PMID: 31352216 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 07/16/2019] [Accepted: 07/17/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Lexical tone processing in speech is mediated by bilateral superior temporal and inferior prefrontal regions, but little is known concerning the neural circuitries of lexical tone phonology in reading. Using fMRI, we examined the neural systems for lexical tone in visual Chinese word recognition. We found that the extraction of lexical tone phonology in print was subserved by bilateral fronto-parietal regions. Seed-to-voxel analyses showed that functionally connected cortical regions involved right inferior frontal gyrus and SMA, right middle frontal gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule, and SMA and bilateral cingulate gyri. Our results indicate that in Chinese tone reading, a bilateral network of frontal, parietal, motor, and cingulate regions is engaged, without involvement of temporal regions crucial for tone identification in auditory domain. Although neural couplings for lexical tone processing are different in speech and reading to some degree, the motor cortex seems to be a key component independent of modality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica P Y Kwok
- Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518057, China
| | - Stephen Matthews
- Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
| | - Kofi Yakpo
- Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
| | - Li Hai Tan
- Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518057, China.
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