title: Primary auditory cortex activation by visual speech: an fMRI study at 3 T.
abstract: Recent studies have yielded contradictory evidence on whether visual speech perception (watching articulatory gestures) can activate the human primary auditory cortex. To circumvent confounds due to inter-individual anatomical variation, we defined our subjects' Heschl's gyri and assessed blood oxygenation-dependent signal changes at 3 T within this confined region during visual speech perception and observation of moving circles. Visual speech perception activated Heschl's gyri in nine subjects, with activation in seven of them extending to the area of primary auditory cortex. Activation was significantly stronger during visual speech perception than during observation of the moving circles. Further, a significant hemisphere by stimulus interaction occurred, suggesting left Heschl's gyrus specialization for visual speech processing.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Engineering, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. pekkojo@lce.hut.fi
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pekkola
authors.forename: Ville
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ojanen
authors.forename: Taina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Autti
authors.forename: Iiro P
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: Jääskeläinen
authors.forename: Riikka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Möttönen
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tarkiainen
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sams
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008085:Lipreading; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology