Brain 'talks over' boring quotes: top-down activation of voice-selective areas while listening to monotonous direct speech quotations.
In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said, "I'm hungry") is perceived as more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said that she was hungry). This vividness distinction has previously been found to underlie silent reading of quotations: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that direct speech elicited higher brain activity in the temporal voice areas (TVA) of the auditory cortex than indirect speech, consistent with an "inner voice" experience in reading direct speech. Here we show that listening to monotonously spoken direct versus indirect speech quotations also engenders differential TVA activity. This suggests that individuals engage in top-down simulations or imagery of enriched supra-segmental acoustic representations while listening to monotonous direct speech. The findings shed new light on the acoustic nature of the "inner voice" in understanding direct speech.
Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QB, UK. b.yao@psy.gla.ac.uk
Bo
B
Yao
Pascal
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Belin
Christoph
C
Scheepers
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult