title: Neural mechanisms underlying song and speech perception can be differentiated using an illusory percept.
abstract: The issue of whether human perception of speech and song recruits integrated or dissociated neural systems is contentious. This issue is difficult to address directly since these stimulus classes differ in their physical attributes. We therefore used a compelling illusion (Deutsch et al. 2011) in which acoustically identical auditory stimuli are perceived as either speech or song. Deutsch's illusion was used in a functional MRI experiment to provide a direct, within-subject investigation of the brain regions involved in the perceptual transformation from speech into song, independent of the physical characteristics of the presented stimuli. An overall differential effect resulting from the perception of song compared with that of speech was revealed in right midposterior superior temporal sulcus/right middle temporal gyrus. A left frontotemporal network, previously implicated in higher-level cognitive analyses of music and speech, was found to co-vary with a behavioural measure of the subjective vividness of the illusion, and this effect was driven by the illusory transformation. These findings provide evidence that illusory song perception is instantiated by a network of brain regions that are predominantly shared with the speech perception network.
authors.affiliation: York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, York Science Park, YO10 5NY, United Kingdom. Electronic address: mark.hymers@ynic.york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hymers
authors.affiliation: York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, York Science Park, YO10 5NY, United Kingdom; Audiology and Deafness Group, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Garreth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Prendergast
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Can
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schulze
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Michellie L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, SE5 8AF, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wastling
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, SE5 8AF, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Gareth J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.affiliation: York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, York Science Park, YO10 5NY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rebecca E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Millman
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Illusion; Perception; Song; Speech; fMRI