Cortical representation of vowels reflects acoustic dissimilarity determined by formant frequencies.
We studied neuromagnetic correlates of the processing of German vowels [a], [e] and [i]. The aim was (i) to show an influence of acoustic/phonetic features on timing and mapping of the N100 m component and (ii) to demonstrate the retest reliability of these parameters. To assess the spatial configuration of the N100 m generators, Euclidean distances between vowel sources were computed. Latency, amplitude, and source locations of the N100 m component differed between vowels. The acoustically most dissimilar vowels [a] and [i] showed more distant source locations than the more similar vowels [e] and [i]. This pattern of results was reliably found in a second experimental session after at least 5 days. The results suggest the preservation of spectral dissimilarities as mapped in a F(1)-F(2) vowel space in a cortical representation.
Obleser
Jonas
J
University of Konstanz, Department of Clinical Psychology, P.O. Box D25, 78457 Konstanz, Germany. jonas.obleser@uni-konstanz.de
Elbert
Thomas
T
Lahiri
Aditi
A
Eulitz
Carsten
C
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*