Neural control of fundamental frequency rise and fall in Mandarin tones

Abstract

The neural mechanisms used in tone rises and falls in Mandarin were investigated. Nine participants were scanned while they named one-character pictures that required rising or falling tone responses in Mandarin: the left insula and right putamen showed stronger activation between rising and falling tones; the left brainstem showed weaker activation between rising and falling tones. Connectivity analysis showed that the significant projection from the laryngeal motor cortex to the brainstem which was present in rising tones was absent in falling tones. Additionally, there was a significant difference between the connection from the insula to the laryngeal motor cortex which was negative in rising tones but positive in falling tones. These results suggest that the significant projection from the laryngeal motor cortex to the brainstem used in rising tones was not active in falling tones. The connection from the left insula to the laryngeal motor cortex that differs between rising and falling tones may control whether the rise mechanism is active or not.

How does human motor cortex regulate vocal pitch in singers?

“…Howell et al . [33] likewise observed a single locus in the LMC across pitch levels, but found differences elsewhere, including the cerebellum and anterior insula. Although both of these studies observed differences in a similar region of the cerebellum, Peck et al .…”

“…[32] had participants phonate at three pitch levels in their vocal range, Howell et al . [33] examined the production of rising and falling tones in Mandarin, and Kryshtopava et al . [34] examined phonation at both comfortable and high pitch levels, when compared with silent expiration.…”

Lexical tone and stuttering loci in Mandarin: Evidence from preschool children who stutter

“…falling-rising), requiring rapid changes and precise coordination of laryngeal adjustments resulting from activation of the CT and SH muscles (Wong, 2012a). Further, recent imaging work by Howell, Jiang, Peng, and Lu (2012a) indicated that there appear to be different neural mechanisms underlying rising and falling tones; the rapid transition between a falling and rising tone contour in T3 and the shift in neural activity suspected to be required for this transition may increase production variability as well as its vulnerability to disruption (in the form of both accuracy and disfluency/stuttering). In a follow-up study, Howell, Jiang, Peng, and Lu (2012b) did, in fact, observe that adults who stutter showed different neural control of rising and falling tones than controls and that this difference was most obvious during falling tone production.…”

Neural control of rising and falling tones in Mandarin speakers who stutter

“…The high-flat and falling tones are acquired earlier than the rising and falling-rising tones (Hua & Dodd, 2000), and more tone confusion errors occur on the rising and falling-rising tones than on the high-flat and falling tones (Shi & Li, 2011). Neuroimaging evidence has also shown that rising-tone control involves an active mechanism, whereas falling-tone control does not (Howell et al, 2012). The neural systems that control both the rising and falling tones likely involve the left laryngeal motor cortex (LMC), insula, brainstem, and right putamen (Howell et al, 2012).…”

“…The neural mechanisms that control rising and falling tones in fluent speakers of Mandarin have been identified recently (Howell, Jiang, Peng, & Lu, 2012). These mechanisms may be affected in people who exhibit a range of speech disorders where laryngeal problems have been reported (Simonyan & Horwitz, 2011).…”