Voice-Sensitive Areas in the Brain: A Single Participant Study Coupled With Brief Evolutionary Psychological Considerations

Abstract

This empirical single-participant fMRI case study partially replicates Belin, Zatorre, Lafaille, Ahad, and Pike (2000) research on voice-selective areas in the auditory cortex. It hypothesises that brain areas, sensitive to human vocal sounds, show greater neural activation than non-human ones. A 1X3 ANOVA design was used in this study contrasted by two conditions: sound vs. silence and voice vs. non-voice. The findings supported the hypothesis, noting also possible individual differences to the degree of voice activation in both hemispheres. Suggestions for a future replication could discuss voice/non-voice and speech/non-speech neuronal activation in the brain, auditory and visual neural responsiveness to voice and face modalities, and evolutionary assumptions in regard to sound-and voice-selective reactivity.