title: Speech perception under adverse conditions: insights from behavioral, computational, and neuroscience research.
abstract: Adult speech perception reflects the long-term regularities of the native language, but it is also flexible such that it accommodates and adapts to adverse listening conditions and short-term deviations from native-language norms. The purpose of this article is to examine how the broader neuroscience literature can inform and advance research efforts in understanding the neural basis of flexibility and adaptive plasticity in speech perception. Specifically, we highlight the potential role of learning algorithms that rely on prediction error signals and discuss specific neural structures that are likely to contribute to such learning. To this end, we review behavioral studies, computational accounts, and neuroimaging findings related to adaptive plasticity in speech perception. Already, a few studies have alluded to a potential role of these mechanisms in adaptive plasticity in speech perception. Furthermore, we consider research topics in neuroscience that offer insight into how perception can be adaptively tuned to short-term deviations while balancing the need to maintain stability in the perception of learned long-term regularities. Consideration of the application and limitations of these algorithms in characterizing flexible speech perception under adverse conditions promises to inform theoretical models of speech.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guediche
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University Providence, RI, USA ; Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brain Institute, Brown University Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Sheila E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Blumstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Julie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fiez
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Lori L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Holt
keywords: cerebellum; language; perceptual learning; plasticity; prediction error signals; speech perception; supervised learning