Review The role of the auditory brainstem in processing linguistically-relevant pitch patterns  

Oleh:

Krishnan, Ananthanarayan ; Gandour, Jackson T.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Brain and Language (Full Text) vol. 110 no. 3 (2009), page 135-148.
Topik: Auditory Human; Brainstem; Pitch; Language; Frequency following response (FFR); Iterated rippled noise (IRN); Mandarin Chinese; Experience-dependent plasticity; Speech perception
Fulltext: 110_03_Krishnan.pdf (800.25KB)

Isi artikel

Historically, the brainstem has been neglected as a part of the brain involved in language processing. We review recent evidence of language-dependent effects in pitch processing based on comparisons of native vs. nonnative speakers of a tonal language from electrophysiological recordings in the auditory brainstem. We argue that there is enhancing of linguistically-relevant pitch dimensions or features well before the auditory signal reaches the cerebral cortex. We propose that long-term experience with a tone language sharpens the tuning characteristics of neurons along the pitch axis with enhanced sensitivity to linguistically-relevant, rapidly changing sections of pitch contours. Though not specific to a speech context, experience-dependent brainstem mechanisms for pitch representation are clearly sensitive to particular aspects of pitch contours that native speakers of a tone language have been exposed to. Such experience-dependent effects on lower-level sensory processing are compatible with more integrated, hierarchically organized pathways to language and the brain.

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