Bilateral dorsal and ventral fiber pathways for the processing of affective prosody identified by probabilistic fiber tracking

Abstract

Dorsal and ventral pathways for syntacto-semantic speech processing in the left hemisphere are represented in the dual-stream model of auditory processing. Here we report new findings for the right dorsal and ventral temporo-frontal pathway during processing of affectively intonated speech (i.e. affective prosody) in humans, together with several left hemispheric structural connections, partly resembling those for syntacto-semantic speech processing. We investigated white matter fiber connectivity between regions responding to affective prosody in several subregions of the bilateral superior temporal cortex (secondary and higher-level auditory cortex) and of the inferior frontal cortex (anterior and posterior inferior frontal gyrus). The fiber connectivity was investigated by using probabilistic diffusion tensor based tractography. The results underscore several so far underestimated auditory pathway connections, especially for the processing of affective prosody, such as a right ventral auditory pathway. The results also suggest the existence of a dual-stream processing in the right hemisphere, and a general predominance of the dorsal pathways in both hemispheres underlying the neural processing of affective prosody in an extended temporo-frontal network.

The neural basis of responsive caregiving behaviour: Investigating temporal dynamics within the parental brain

“…It should be noted that this review is not a comprehensive description of studies in this rapidly expanding field, instead aiming to broadly summarize key findings and emerging trends, focusing on temporally-sensitive neuroimaging techniques [for additional recent reviews, focusing of different imaging modalities, see [49,50]]. [60] Lorberbaum et al [61] Riem et al [62] Montoya et al [63] 2. Neural responses to infant cues: characterizing networks of the 'parental brain'…”

“…Subcortical (amygdala) and cortical (superior temporal gyrus/sulcus, middle temporal gyrus) regions of the temporal lobe are recruited in the initial processing of affect in the voice [56][57][58][59], while occipital and temporal regions (including the fusiform gyrus) are principally recruited for the sensory processing of facial expressions [60]. Activity in these regions is then hypothesised to project to frontal regions, such as the OFC and inferior frontal gyrus for evaluation and higher-order processing [61][62][63].…”

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Neural systems for evaluating speaker (Un)believability

“…Recent advancements in fMRI have revealed the neural pathways underlying the processing of vocal expressions of emotional signals [Frühholz et al, ; Schirmer and Kotz, ; Wildgruber et al, ]. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) registers the unfolding of relevant acoustic affective cues over time, and serves to integrate this information in the form of an auditory percept; the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) then functions to integrate emotionally relevant sound features provided by the STG via dorsal and ventral connections, allowing sounds to be categorized according to their social meaning and affective weights [Frühholz and Grandjean, ; Frühholz et al, ; Sammler et al, ; Schirmer and Kotz, ]. In addition, the mPFC is involved in vocal emotion processing; it supports emotional and social functions related to interpersonal communication and understanding, permitting increased emotional appraisal and evaluation processes (especially the dorsal‐caudal part) [Ethofer et al, ; Wildgruber et al, ].…”

Whispering - The hidden side of auditory communication

“…Concerning the latter question, the neural decoding of emotions conveyed by voices predominantly, but not exclusively, involves a neural network consisting of the lateral and medial frontal cortex as well as the auditory cortex (Frühholz and Grandjean, 2013a, b;Frühholz et al, 2014), with a strong structural (Frühholz et al, 2015a) and functional connectivity between these regions (Ethofer et al, 2012). The functional role of the auditory cortex has been proposed to underlie the acoustic analysis of physical voice features Wiethoff et al, 2008) and the perceptual integration of voice features into an acoustic percept .…”