A1 Journal article (refereed)
Coherence between brain activation and speech envelope at word and sentence levels showed age-related differences in low frequency bands (2021)

Kolozsvári, O. B., Xu, W., Gerike, G., Parviainen, T., Nieminen, L., Noiray, A., & Hämäläinen, J. A. (2021). Coherence between brain activation and speech envelope at word and sentence levels showed age-related differences in low frequency bands. Neurobiology of Language, 2(2), 226-253. https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00033

JYU authors or editors

Kolozsvari, Orsolya
Xu, Weiyong
Gerike, Georgia
Parviainen, Tiina
Nieminen, Lea
Hämäläinen, Jarmo

Publication details

All authors or editors: Kolozsvári, Orsolya B; Xu, Weiyong; Gerike, Georgia; Parviainen, Tiina; Nieminen, Lea; Noiray, Aude; Hämäläinen, Jarmo A

Journal or series: Neurobiology of Language

eISSN: 2641-4368

Publication year: 2021

Publication date: 03/03/2021

Volume: 2

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 226-253

Publisher: MIT Press

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00033

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/75482

Abstract

Speech perception is dynamic and shows changes across development. In parallel, functional differences in brain development over time have been well documented and these differences may interact with changes in speech perception during infancy and childhood. Further, there is evidence that the two hemispheres contribute unequally to speech segmentation at the sentence and phonemic levels.

To disentangle those contributions, we studied the cortical tracking of various sized units of speech that are crucial for spoken language processing in children (4.7-9.3 year-olds, N=34) and adults (N=19). We measured participants’ magnetoencephalogram (MEG) responses to syllables, words and sentences, calculated the coherence between the speech signal and MEG responses at the level of words and sentences, and further examined auditory evoked responses to syllables. Age-related differences were found for coherence values at the delta and theta frequency bands. Both frequency bands showed an effect of stimulus type, although this was attributed to the length of the stimulus and not linguistic unit size. There was no difference between hemispheres at the source level either in coherence values for word or sentence processing or in evoked response to syllables.

Results highlight the importance of the lower frequencies for speech tracking in the brain across different lexical units. Further, stimulus length affects the speech-brain associations suggesting methodological approaches should be selected carefully when studying speech envelope processing at the neural level. Speech tracking in the brain seems decoupled from more general maturation of the auditory cortex.

Keywords: language development; perceptual psychology; auditory perceptions; speech (phenomena); MEG

Free keywords: speech perception; development; magnetoencephalography; speech tracking; coherence; auditory responses

Fields of science: