Activation and application of an obligatory phonotactic constraint in German during automatic speech processing is revealed by human event-related potentials

Steinberg, Johanna; Truckenbrodt, Hubert; Jacobsen, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2010.03.011

Cited by 10 publications

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“…By cutting and replacing segments of sounds or sound sequences by other realizations one can keep the acoustic specification of a natural utterance constant and carefully control any influence of the sound context on the segments of interest (cf., e.g., Sharma and Dorman, 2000;Pulvermüller et al, 2001;Mitterer and Blomert, 2003;Pulvermüller and Shtyrov, 2003;Menning et al, 2005;Ylinen et al, 2005Ylinen et al, , 2006Flagg et al, 2006;Hasting et al, 2007;Kirmse et al, 2008;Pulvermüller et al, 2008;Garagnani et al, 2009;Tavabi et al, 2009). Finally, there is the possibility to neutralize randomly varying stimulus specifications by including controlled variability into the natural stimulation, which is mostly done by using several tokens of the same stimulus type (cf., e.g., Shestakova et al, 2002;Eulitz and Lahiri, 2004;Jacobsen, Schröger, and Alter, 2004;Jacobsen, Schröger, and Sussman, 2004;Bonte et al, 2005Bonte et al, , 2007Mathiak, 2007, 2008;Steinberg et al, 2010aSteinberg et al, ,b, 2011. This method forces the mental system to abstract from varying acoustic stimulus specifications such as pitch, voice quality, or the speaker's sex, age, or voice effort that are not necessarily relevant for linguistic analysis.…”

Section: B Methodological Problems With Speech Stimuli In Mmn Experimentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of stimulus cross-splicing in an event-related potentials study. Misleading formant transitions hinder automatic phonological processing

Steinberg

Truckenbrodt

Jacobsen

2012

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The mental organization of linguistic knowledge and its involvement in speech processing can be investigated using the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event-related potential. A contradiction arises, however, between the technical need for strict control of acoustic stimulus properties and the quest for naturalness and acoustic variability of the stimuli. Here, two methods of preparing speech stimulus material were compared. Focussing on the automatic processing of a phonotactic restriction in German, two corresponding sets of various vowel-fricative syllables were used as stimuli. The former syllables were naturally spoken while the latter ones were created by means of cross-splicing. Phonetically, natural and spliced syllables differed with respect to the appropriateness of coarticulatory information about the forthcoming fricative within the vowels. Spliced syllables containing clearly misleading phonetic information were found to elicit larger N2 responses compared to their natural counterparts. Furthermore, MMN results found for the natural syllables could not be replicated with these spliced stimuli. These findings indicate that the automatic processing of the stimuli was considerably affected by the stimulus preparation method. Thus, in spite of its unquestioned benefits for MMN experiments, the splicing technique may lead to interference effects on the linguistic factors under investigation.

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Section: B Methodological Problems With Speech Stimuli In Mmn Experimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this purpose, we build on previous research we conducted to investigate the mental organization of language-specific phonological knowledge and its involvement in automatic speech processing by means of the MMN (Steinberg et al, 2010a(Steinberg et al, ,b, 2011.…”

Section: Intention Of the Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of stimulus cross-splicing in an event-related potentials study. Misleading formant transitions hinder automatic phonological processing

Steinberg

Truckenbrodt

Jacobsen

2012

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Self Cite

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“…In spite of using MMN, the above mentioned studies leave open the question about the contribution of predictive coding to phonological processing under conditions where previous phonological units strongly constrain the selection of following units and thus may induce predictions about legal phonological units only. Although not explicitly discussed in the predictive coding framework, effects found by Steinberg, Truckenbrodt, and Jacobsen (2010a, 2010b are relevant in this respect. The authors used MMN to explore the German phonotactic constraint of dorsal fricative assimilation with designs where predictions about following speech sounds may be induced: listeners were presented with phonotactically legal and illegal vowel-consonant combinations, where the vowel predicts legal consonants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictive coding of phonological rules in auditory cortex: A mismatch negativity study

et al. 2016

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The brain is constantly generating predictions of future sensory input to enable efficient adaptation. In the auditory domain, this applies also to the processing of speech. Here we aimed to determine whether the brain predicts the following segments of speech input on the basis of language-specific phonological rules that concern non-adjacent phonemes. Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded in a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, where the Finnish vowel harmony, determined by the first syllables of pseudowords, either constrained or did not constrain the phonological composition of pseudoword endings. The phonological rule of vowel harmony was expected to create predictions about phonologically legal pseudoword endings. Results showed that MMN responses were larger for phonologically illegal than legal pseudowords, and P3a was elicited only for illegal pseudowords. This supports the hypothesis that speech input is evaluated against context-dependent phonological predictions that facilitate speech processing.

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“…To this end, the mismatch negativity (MMN) can be an efficient tool for investigation of preattentive extraction of abstract auditory rules [13], [14]. The MMN is a powerful tool for study of the automatic processing of auditory linguistic inputs [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. The MMN usually peaks 100–250 ms after onset of stimulus and is an index of the brain's sensory intelligence in the preattentive encoding of abstract rules in audition [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preattentive Extraction of Abstract Auditory Rules in Speech Sound Stream: A Mismatch Negativity Study Using Lexical Tones

Wang

et al. 2012

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundExtraction of linguistically relevant auditory features is critical for speech comprehension in complex auditory environments, in which the relationships between acoustic stimuli are often abstract and constant while the stimuli per se are varying. These relationships are referred to as the abstract auditory rule in speech and have been investigated for their underlying neural mechanisms at an attentive stage. However, the issue of whether or not there is a sensory intelligence that enables one to automatically encode abstract auditory rules in speech at a preattentive stage has not yet been thoroughly addressed.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe chose Chinese lexical tones for the current study because they help to define word meaning and hence facilitate the fabrication of an abstract auditory rule in a speech sound stream. We continuously presented native Chinese speakers with Chinese vowels differing in formant, intensity, and level of pitch to construct a complex and varying auditory stream. In this stream, most of the sounds shared flat lexical tones to form an embedded abstract auditory rule. Occasionally the rule was randomly violated by those with a rising or falling lexical tone. The results showed that the violation of the abstract auditory rule of lexical tones evoked a robust preattentive auditory response, as revealed by whole-head electrical recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN), though none of the subjects acquired explicit knowledge of the rule or became aware of the violation.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results demonstrate that there is an auditory sensory intelligence in the perception of Chinese lexical tones. The existence of this intelligence suggests that the humans can automatically extract abstract auditory rules in speech at a preattentive stage to ensure speech communication in complex and noisy auditory environments without drawing on conscious resources.

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Activation and application of an obligatory phonotactic constraint in German during automatic speech processing is revealed by human event-related potentials

Cited by 10 publications

References 40 publications

The role of stimulus cross-splicing in an event-related potentials study. Misleading formant transitions hinder automatic phonological processing

The role of stimulus cross-splicing in an event-related potentials study. Misleading formant transitions hinder automatic phonological processing

Predictive coding of phonological rules in auditory cortex: A mismatch negativity study

Preattentive Extraction of Abstract Auditory Rules in Speech Sound Stream: A Mismatch Negativity Study Using Lexical Tones

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