Investigating the role of temporal lobe activation in speech perception accuracy with normal hearing adults: An event-related fNIRS study

Defenderfer, Jessica; Kerr‐German, Anastasia; Hedrick, Mark; Buss, Aaron T.

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.09.004

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…Results revealed that the extent of right-hemispheric lateralization in the auditory cortices during music processing was strongest with the addition of modest noise interference, and reduced with the addition of high levels of noise interference or in quiet. This evidence, derived from using the fNIRS technique, is in line with work into the effects of noise during speech perception, 60 and adds strength to the suggestion that noise interference leads to altered representation of complex sounds in the auditory cortex.…”

Section: Music Perceptionsupporting

confidence: 75%

<p>Shedding Light On The Human Auditory Cortex: A Review Of The Advances In Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)</p>

Harrison¹,

Hartley²

2019

RMI

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Imaging the auditory cortex can prove challenging using neuroimaging methodologies due to interfering noise from the scanner in fMRI and the low spatial resolution of EEG. Optical imaging provides a new and exciting option for exploring this key cortical area. This review presents a brief history of optical imaging, followed by an exploration of how advances in optical imaging technologies have increased the understanding of the functions and processes within the auditory cortex. In particular, the benefits and limitations of using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) on complex populations such as infants and individuals with hearing loss are explored, along with suggestions for future research developments.

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Section: Music Perceptionsupporting

confidence: 75%

<p>Shedding Light On The Human Auditory Cortex: A Review Of The Advances In Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)</p>

Harrison¹,

Hartley²

2019

RMI

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“…In a later study, the same group found greater brain activation to normal speech compared to less intelligible speech in NH adults and adult cochlear implant users with good speech perception skills [103]. Defenderfer et al [104] also found differences in cortical activity in response to easy and more challenging listening conditions. With the possible exception of channel 32, which targeted a more posterior portion of the left auditory cortex, it is possible that the responses measured by the fNIRS system originated from brain regions which respond to any complex, modulated auditory stimulus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating time-reversed speech and signal-correlated noise as auditory baselines for isolating speech-specific processing using fNIRS

et al. 2019

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Evidence using well-established imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrocorticography, suggest that speech-specific cortical responses can be functionally localised by contrasting speech responses with an auditory baseline stimulus, such as time-reversed (TR) speech or signal-correlated noise (SCN). Furthermore, these studies suggest that SCN is a more effective baseline than TR speech. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a relatively novel, optically-based imaging technique with features that make it ideal for investigating speech and language function in paediatric populations. However, it is not known which baseline is best at isolating speech activation when imaging using fNIRS. We presented normal speech, TR speech and SCN in an event-related format to 25 normally-hearing children aged 6–12 years. Brain activity was measured across frontal and temporal brain areas in both cerebral hemispheres whilst children passively listened to the auditory stimuli. In all three conditions, significant activation was observed bilaterally in channels targeting superior temporal regions when stimuli were contrasted against silence. Unlike previous findings in infants, we found no significant activation in the region of interest over superior temporal cortex in school-age children when normal speech was contrasted against either TR speech or SCN. Although no statistically significant lateralisation effects were observed in the region of interest, a left-sided channel targeting posterior temporal regions showed significant activity in response to normal speech only, and was investigated further. Significantly greater activation was observed in this left posterior channel compared to the corresponding channel on the right side under the normal speech vs SCN contrast only. Our findings suggest that neither TR speech nor SCN are suitable auditory baselines for functionally isolating speech-specific processing in an experimental set up involving fNIRS with 6–12 year old children.

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“…The Institutional Review Board of the University of Tennessee Knoxville approved the experimental protocol and plan of research. Based on our previous fNIRS study ( Defenderfer et al, 2017 ), power analyses of a two-factor, within-subjects design suggests a minimum of 38 subjects to achieve a power of 80% with an effect size of 0.14. Thirty-nine adults (mean age 24.76 years, 21 females) participated in the study.…”

Section: Methods and Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, comprehension of speech generally follows a hierarchy of processing such that acoustic sensory analyses begin at the temporal lobe, and higher level, attentional mechanisms of the frontal cortex are recruited to resolve more complicated speech information ( Davis and Johnsrude, 2003 ; Friederici, 2011 ). When degraded listening conditions complicate speech understanding, additional brain regions become activated beyond those recruited during favorable listening conditions ( Defenderfer et al, 2017 ; Du et al, 2014 ; Mattys et al, 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The few neuroimaging studies that have made this direct comparison have reported elevated activation in different frontotemporal regions to both accurate ( Dimitrijevic et al, 2019 ; Lawrence et al, 2018 ) and inaccurate perception ( Vaden et al, 2013 ). Additionally, a recent fNIRS examination of temporal lobe activity in NH adults reported increased temporal cortex activation during accurate recognition of sentences in noise when compared to incorrect trials, highly intelligible vocoded speech stimuli, and speech-in-quiet stimuli ( Defenderfer et al, 2017 ). What did not emerge from this study were differences in activation between natural speech and vocoded speech stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Frontotemporal activation differs between perception of simulated cochlear implant speech and speech in background noise: An image-based fNIRS study

et al. 2021

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In this study we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate neural responses in normal-hearing adults as a function of speech recognition accuracy, intelligibility of the speech stimulus, and the manner in which speech is distorted. Participants listened to sentences and reported aloud what they heard. Speech quality was distorted artificially by vocoding (simulated cochlear implant speech) or naturally by adding background noise. Each type of distortion included high and low-intelligibility conditions. Sentences in quiet were used as baseline comparison. fNIRS data were analyzed using a newly developed image reconstruction approach. First, elevated cortical responses in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and middle frontal gyrus (MFG) were associated with speech recognition during the low-intelligibility conditions. Second, activation in the MTG was associated with recognition of vocoded speech with low intelligibility, whereas MFG activity was largely driven by recognition of speech in background noise, suggesting that the cortical response varies as a function of distortion type. Lastly, an accuracy effect in the MFG demonstrated significantly higher activation during correct perception relative to incorrect perception of speech. These results suggest that normal-hearing adults (i.e., untrained listeners of vocoded stimuli) do not exploit the same attentional mechanisms of the frontal cortex used to resolve naturally degraded speech and may instead rely on segmental and phonetic analyses in the temporal lobe to discriminate vocoded speech.

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Investigating the role of temporal lobe activation in speech perception accuracy with normal hearing adults: An event-related fNIRS study

Cited by 18 publications

References 95 publications

<p>Shedding Light On The Human Auditory Cortex: A Review Of The Advances In Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)</p>

<p>Shedding Light On The Human Auditory Cortex: A Review Of The Advances In Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)</p>

Evaluating time-reversed speech and signal-correlated noise as auditory baselines for isolating speech-specific processing using fNIRS

Frontotemporal activation differs between perception of simulated cochlear implant speech and speech in background noise: An image-based fNIRS study

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