Work

Nonlinear dynamics in auditory cortical activity reveal the neural basis of perceptual warping in speech categorization

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Surrounding context influences speech listening, resulting in dynamic shifts to category percepts. To examine its neural basis, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during vowel identification with continua presented in random, forward, and backward orders to induce perceptual warping. Behaviorally, sequential order shifted individual listeners' categorical boundary, versus random delivery, revealing perceptual warping (biasing) of the heard phonetic category dependent on recent stimulus history. ERPs revealed later (∼300 ms) activity localized to superior temporal and middle/inferior frontal gyri that predicted listeners' hysteresis/enhanced contrast magnitudes. Findings demonstrate that interactions between frontotemporal brain regions govern top-down, stimulus history effects on speech categorization.

Source: JASA Express Letters

DOI: 10.1121/10.0009896

Authors: Jared A. Carter, Eugene H. Buder, Gavin M. Bidelman

Institutions: University of Memphis, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University

Language: English

Topic: Phonetics and Phonology Research

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Award: Neural Dynamics Underlying the Emergence of Auditory Categorization and Learning