Brain stem evoked response to forward and reversed speech in humans.
Speech stimuli played in reverse are perceived as unfamiliar and alien-sounding, even though phoneme duration and fundamental voicing frequency are preserved. Although language perception ultimately resides in the neocortex, the brain stem plays a vital role in processing auditory information, including speech. The present study measured brain stem frequency-following responses (FFR) evoked by forward and reverse speech stimuli recorded from electrodes oriented horizontally and vertically to measure signals with putative origins in auditory nerve and rostral brain stem, respectively. The vertical FFR showed increased amplitude due to forward speech. It is concluded that familiar phonological and prosodic properties of forward speech selectively activate central brain stem neurons.
Mental Retardation Research Center, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. garyg@ucla.edu
Gary C
GC
Galbraith
Elizabeth M
EM
Amaya
Jacinta M Diaz
JM
de Rivera
Namee M
NM
Donan
Mylien T
MT
Duong
Jeffrey N
JN
Hsu
Kim
K
Tran
Lian P
LP
Tsang
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000528:radiation effects; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*