TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrophysiological evidence of early cortical sensitivity to human conspecific mimic voice as a distinct category of natural sound
AU - Talkington, William J.
AU - Donai, Jeremy
AU - Kadner, Alexandra S.
AU - Layne, Molly L.
AU - Forino, Andrew
AU - Wen, Sijin
AU - Gao, Si
AU - Gray, Margeaux M.
AU - Ashraf, Alexandria J.
AU - Valencia, Gabriela N.
AU - Smith, Brandon D.
AU - Khoo, Stephanie K.
AU - Gray, Stephen J.
AU - Lass, Norman
AU - Brefczynski-Lewis, Julie A.
AU - Engdahl, Susannah
AU - Graham, David
AU - Frum, Chris A.
AU - Lewis, James W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Purpose: From an anthropological perspective of hominin communication, the human auditory system likely evolved to enable special sensitivity to sounds produced by the vocal tracts of human conspecifics whether attended or passively heard. While numerous electrophysiological studies have used stereotypical human-produced verbal (speech voice and singing voice) and nonverbal vocalizations to identify human voice–sensitive responses, controversy remains as to when (and where) processing of acoustic signal attributes characteristic of “human voiceness” per se initiate in the brain. Method: To explore this, we used animal vocalizations and human-mimicked versions of those calls (“mimic voice”) to examine late auditory evoked potential responses in humans. Results: Here, we revealed an N1b component (96–120 ms poststimulus) during a nonattending listening condition showing significantly greater magnitude in response to mimics, beginning as early as primary auditory cortices, preceding the time window reported in previous studies that revealed species-specific vocalization processing initiating in the range of 147–219 ms. During a sound discrimination task, a P600 (500–700 ms poststimulus) component showed specificity for accurate discrimination of human mimic voice. Distinct acoustic signal attributes and features of the stimuli were used in a classifier model, which could distinguish most human from animal voice comparably to behavioral data—though none of these single features could adequately distinguish human voiceness. Conclusions: These results provide novel ideas for algorithms used in neuromimetic hearing aids, as well as direct electrophysiological support for a neurocognitive model of natural sound processing that informs both neurodevelopmental and anthropological models regarding the establishment of auditory communication systems in humans.
AB - Purpose: From an anthropological perspective of hominin communication, the human auditory system likely evolved to enable special sensitivity to sounds produced by the vocal tracts of human conspecifics whether attended or passively heard. While numerous electrophysiological studies have used stereotypical human-produced verbal (speech voice and singing voice) and nonverbal vocalizations to identify human voice–sensitive responses, controversy remains as to when (and where) processing of acoustic signal attributes characteristic of “human voiceness” per se initiate in the brain. Method: To explore this, we used animal vocalizations and human-mimicked versions of those calls (“mimic voice”) to examine late auditory evoked potential responses in humans. Results: Here, we revealed an N1b component (96–120 ms poststimulus) during a nonattending listening condition showing significantly greater magnitude in response to mimics, beginning as early as primary auditory cortices, preceding the time window reported in previous studies that revealed species-specific vocalization processing initiating in the range of 147–219 ms. During a sound discrimination task, a P600 (500–700 ms poststimulus) component showed specificity for accurate discrimination of human mimic voice. Distinct acoustic signal attributes and features of the stimuli were used in a classifier model, which could distinguish most human from animal voice comparably to behavioral data—though none of these single features could adequately distinguish human voiceness. Conclusions: These results provide novel ideas for algorithms used in neuromimetic hearing aids, as well as direct electrophysiological support for a neurocognitive model of natural sound processing that informs both neurodevelopmental and anthropological models regarding the establishment of auditory communication systems in humans.
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U2 - 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00063
DO - 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00063
M3 - Article
C2 - 32936717
AN - SCOPUS:85092574409
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 63
SP - 3539
EP - 3559
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 10
ER -