scholarly journals Speech perception under the tent: A domain-general predictive role for the cerebellum

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy I Skipper ◽  
Daniel R Lamett
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Predictive Role ◽  
Meta Analyses

AbstractThe role of the cerebellum in speech perception remains a mystery. Given its uniform architecture, we tested the hypothesis that it implements a domain-general predictive mechanism whose role in speech processing is determined by connectivity. We used standard and coactivation neuroimaging meta-analyses of speech perception studies without motor responses, with (n = 72) or without (n = 92) cerebellum activity. We compared these to speech production studies (n = 175). Results show multiple, distinct regions of perception- and production-related activity throughout the cerebellum with some overlap. Each task had distinct patterns of cortico-cerebellar connectivity. Perception regions/connections were associated with task-related terms mined from thousands of neuroimaging studies that were neither speech nor domain-specific but were prediction related. Finally, when the cerebellum was active, there was less cortical activity compared to when it was inactive, a marker of predictive processing. Results suggest that the cerebellum implements a domain-general mechanism related to prediction during passive speech perception.

scholarly journals Speech Perception under the Tent: A Domain-general Predictive Role for the Cerebellum

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jeremy I. Skipper ◽  
Daniel R. Lametti
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Cortical Activation ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Sound Perception ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Domain Generality ◽  
Predictive Role ◽  
Meta Analyses

Abstract The role of the cerebellum in speech perception remains a mystery. Given its uniform architecture, we tested the hypothesis that it implements a domain-general mechanism whose role in speech is determined by connectivity. We collated all neuroimaging studies reporting cerebellar activity in the Neurosynth database (n = 8206). From this set, we found all studies involving passive speech and sound perception (n = 72, 64% speech, 12.5% sounds, 12.5% music, and 11% tones) and speech production and articulation (n = 175). Standard and coactivation neuroimaging meta-analyses were used to compare cerebellar and associated cortical activations between passive perception and production. We found distinct regions of perception- and production-related activity in the cerebellum and regions of perception–production overlap. Each of these regions had distinct patterns of cortico-cerebellar connectivity. To test for domain-generality versus specificity, we identified all psychological and task-related terms in the Neurosynth database that predicted activity in cerebellar regions associated with passive perception and production. Regions in the cerebellum activated by speech perception were associated with domain-general terms related to prediction. One hallmark of predictive processing is metabolic savings (i.e., decreases in neural activity when events are predicted). To test the hypothesis that the cerebellum plays a predictive role in speech perception, we examined cortical activation between studies reporting cerebellar activation and those without cerebellar activation during speech perception. When the cerebellum was active during speech perception, there was far less cortical activation than when it was inactive. The results suggest that the cerebellum implements a domain-general mechanism related to prediction during speech perception.

scholarly journals Neuropsychological assessment and virtual reality training of social prediction in patients with cerebellar malformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cosimo Urgesi ◽  
Niccolò Butti ◽  
Alessandra Finisguerra ◽  
Emilia Biffi ◽  
Enza Maria Valente ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Cerebellar Malformation ◽  
Use Context ◽  
Predictive Role ◽  
Social Prediction

AbstractIt has been proposed that impairments of the predictive function exerted by the cerebellum may account for social cognition deficits. Here, we integrated cerebellar functions in a predictive coding framework to elucidate how cerebellar alterations could affect the predictive processing of others’ behavior. Experiment 1 demonstrated that cerebellar patients were impaired in relying on contextual information during action prediction, and this impairment was significantly associated with social cognition abilities. Experiment 2 indicated that patients with cerebellar malformation showed a domain-general deficit in using contextual information to predict both social and physical events. Experiment 3 provided first evidence that a social-prediction training in virtual reality could boost the ability to use context-based predictions to understand others’ intentions. These findings shed new light on the predictive role of the cerebellum and its contribution to social cognition, paving the way for new approaches to the rehabilitation of the Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome.

scholarly journals Content-based Dissociation of Hippocampal Involvement in Prediction

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kok ◽  
Lindsay I. Rait ◽  
Nicholas B. Turk-Browne
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Visual Objects ◽  
Complex Shapes ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Abstract Shapes

Recent work suggests that a key function of the hippocampus is to predict the future. This is thought to depend on its ability to bind inputs over time and space and to retrieve upcoming or missing inputs based on partial cues. In line with this, previous research has revealed prediction-related signals in the hippocampus for complex visual objects, such as fractals and abstract shapes. Implicit in such accounts is that these computations in the hippocampus reflect domain-general processes that apply across different types and modalities of stimuli. An alternative is that the hippocampus plays a more domain-specific role in predictive processing, with the type of stimuli being predicted determining its involvement. To investigate this, we compared hippocampal responses to auditory cues predicting abstract shapes (Experiment 1) versus oriented gratings (Experiment 2). We measured brain activity in male and female human participants using high-resolution fMRI, in combination with inverted encoding models to reconstruct shape and orientation information. Our results revealed that expectations about shape and orientation evoked distinct representations in the hippocampus. For complex shapes, the hippocampus represented which shape was expected, potentially serving as a source of top–down predictions. In contrast, for simple gratings, the hippocampus represented only unexpected orientations, more reminiscent of a prediction error. We discuss several potential explanations for this content-based dissociation in hippocampal function, concluding that the computational role of the hippocampus in predictive processing may depend on the nature and complexity of stimuli.

scholarly journals Perception of Rhythmic Speech Is Modulated by Focal Bilateral Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedikt Zoefel ◽  
Isobella Allard ◽  
Megha Anil ◽  
Matthew H. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Stream Segregation ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Actual Speech

Several recent studies have used transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to demonstrate a causal role of neural oscillatory activity in speech processing. In particular, it has been shown that the ability to understand speech in a multi-speaker scenario or background noise depends on the timing of speech presentation relative to simultaneously applied tACS. However, it is possible that tACS did not change actual speech perception but rather auditory stream segregation. In this study, we tested whether the phase relation between tACS and the rhythm of degraded words, presented in silence, modulates word report accuracy. We found strong evidence for a tACS-induced modulation of speech perception, but only if the stimulation was applied bilaterally using ring electrodes (not for unilateral left hemisphere stimulation with square electrodes). These results were only obtained when data were analyzed using a statistical approach that was identified as optimal in a previous simulation study. The effect was driven by a phasic disruption of word report scores. Our results suggest a causal role of neural entrainment for speech perception and emphasize the importance of optimizing stimulation protocols and statistical approaches for brain stimulation research.

scholarly journals Questioning the role of lexical contrastiveness in phonological development: Converging evidence from perception and production studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-608
Author(s):  
Yvan Rose ◽  
Sarah Blackmore
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
Relative Independence ◽  
Infant Speech Perception ◽  
Perceptual Abilities ◽  
Phonological Contrasts

AbstractIn this article, we address relations between lexical and phonological development, with an emphasis on the notion of phonological contrast. We begin with an overview of the literature on word learning and on infant speech perception. Among other results, we report on studies showing that toddlers’ perceptual abilities do not correlate with the development of phonological contrasts within their lexicons. We then engage in a systematic comparison between the lexical development of two child learners of English and their acquisition of consonants in syllable onsets. We establish a developmental timeline for each child's onset consonant system, which we compare to the types of phonological contrasts that are present in their expressive vocabularies at each relevant milestone. Like the earlier studies, ours also fails to return tangible parallels between the two areas of development. The data instead suggest that patterns of phonological development are best described in terms of the segmental categories they involve, in relative independence from measures of contrastiveness within the learners’ lexicons.

Evidence against a Predictive Role for Rhythm in Speech Perception

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas H. Mens ◽  
Dirk-Jan Povel
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Future ◽  
Predictive Role ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Phoneme Monitoring

Some languages create the impression of being stress timed. Claims have been made that this timing of stressed syllables enables the listener to predict the future locations of informative parts later in a sentence. The fact that phoneme monitoring is delayed when targets in a spoken sentence are displaced has been taken as supporting this claim (Meltzer, Martin, Bergfeld Mills, Imhoff and Zohar, 1976). In the present study temporal displacement was induced without introducing phonetic discontinuities. In Dutch sentences a word just in advance of a target-bearing word was replaced by another one differing in length. Results show that the temporal displacement per se did not have any effect on phoneme-monitoring reaction times. Implications for a theory of speech processing are discussed.

scholarly journals Perception of rhythmic speech is modulated by focal bilateral tACS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedikt Zoefel ◽  
Isobella Allard ◽  
Megha Anil ◽  
Matthew H Davis
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Stream Segregation ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Auditory Stream Segregation ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Actual Speech ◽  
Speech Presentation

AbstractSeveral recent studies have used transcranial alternating stimulation (tACS) to demonstrate a causal role of neural oscillatory activity in speech processing. In particular, it has been shown that the ability to understand speech in a multi-speaker scenario or background noise depends on the timing of speech presentation relative to simultaneously applied tACS. However, it is possible that tACS did not change actual speech perception but rather auditory stream segregation. In this study, we tested whether the phase relation between tACS and the rhythm of degraded words, presented in silence, modulates word report accuracy. We found strong evidence for a tACS-induced modulation of speech perception, but only if the stimulation was applied bilaterally using ring electrodes (not for unilateral left hemisphere stimulation with square electrodes). These results were only obtained when data was analyzed using a statistical approach that was identified as optimal in a previous simulation study. The effect was driven by a phasic disruption of word report scores. Our results suggest a causal role of neural entrainment for speech perception and emphasize the importance of optimizing stimulation protocols and statistical approaches for brain stimulation research.

scholarly journals Xie, Liu, & Jaeger (2020). Cross-talker generalization during foreign-accented speech perception

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Xie ◽  
Linda Liu ◽  
T. Florian Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Talker Variability ◽  
Total N ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Bayesian Data Analysis ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Open Question

Speech perception depends on the ability to generalize previously experienced input effectively across talkers. How such cross-talker generalization is achieved has remained an open question. In a seminal study, Bradlow & Bent (2008, henceforth BB08) found that exposure to just five minutes of accented speech can elicit improved recognition that generalizes to an unfamiliar talker of the same accent (N=70 participants). Cross-talker generalization was, however, only observed after exposure to multiple talkers of the accent, not after exposure to a single accented talker. This contrast between single- and multi-talker exposure has been highly influential beyond research on speech perception, suggesting a critical role of exposure variability in learning and generalization. We assess the replicability of BB08’s findings in two large-scale perception experiments (total N=640) including 20 unique combinations of exposure and test talkers. Like BB08, we find robust evidence for cross-talker generalization after multi-talker exposure. Unlike BB08, we also find evidence for generalization after single-talker exposure. The degree of cross-talker generalization depends on the specific combination of exposure and test talker. This and other recent findings suggest that exposure to cross-talker variability is not necessary for cross-talker generalization. Variability during exposure might affect generalization only indirectly, mediated through the informativeness of exposure about subsequent speech during test: similarity-based inferences can explain both the original BB08 and the present findings. We present Bayesian data analysis, including Bayesian meta-analyses and replication tests for generalized linear mixed models. All data, stimuli, and reproducible literate (R markdown) code are shared via OSF.

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